Creating crowd-sourced (and funded?) journalism that works

If you’re geeky about journalism and technology, then you’ll definitely want to search out David Cohn at We Media Miami. (Look for the cool hair.) David is chest-deep in some of the most exciting experiments in journalism these days: As editor at NewAssignment.Net and NewsTrust.net, he is helping think through, in very practical ways, how journalism can best benefit from and contribute to the social power of the web. He will of course be speaking on our We Media Miami Wednesday afternoon panel on “Pro-Am Journalism” (kind of makes journalism sound like a sports tour, but anyways.) Today he’s letting us know what’s on his mind:

The Future of Social News Sites

My favorite online communities right now are social news sites, where people can vote on content, collectively determining what the most important news story of the day is. While I was an early adopter of Digg and am still a “top user,” I believe the real power in these communities will develop when they become more niche, serving specific communities with distinct areas of interest. (For fun I’ve started collecting links to these type of niche sites). My gripe with these sites now is the emphasis on entertaining content. This is part of the reason why recently I joined NewsTrust.net, which uses collective wisdom to find and rate stories based on their journalistic integrity.

An Un-Conference for Journalism

I would like to spread un-conferences — the physical meetings of online communities — to news organizations using CopCamp as the meme to do this. I set up a WordPress blog and pbwiki, all the tools needed to organize a “Copy Camp,” and the San Jose Mercury News has agreed to host the first one.

Harnessing the Power of Citizen Journalism Networks

Through my work at NewAssignment.net I have become a staunch believer in the power of citizen journalism coupled with professional news organizations. I would love to see a citizen journalism network (like Broowaha.com, which I edit) partner with a news organization — lending its community to help in investigations that require a dispersed network of researchers. If this model is figured out, I would love to see it used to cover the effects of environmental change or No Child Left Behind, because these type of stories are dispersed throughout the country (or world) and a citizen-journalism network might be the best way to provide a larger context.

Crowd-Funded Journalism

Finally, while most of the projects I work with depend on “collective wisdom,” I believe journalism could benefit greatly by tapping into collective pocketbooks. I look at projects like Kiva.org or SellaBand and wonder why there isn’t a journalism equivalent. All we need is an organizing principle. The one I envision is: social news sites mixed with eBay.

Again, I realize I have been lucky to work on experiments in open-platform journalism such as BeatBlogging.org – a collaboration among 13 news organizations to figure out how social networks can improve beat reporting. I am honored to have the chance to attend We Media. I want to take the opportunity to share what I know, but I especially want to tap into the resources and people that will be in Miami.