Idea Lab

Twittering Away the Jobs of Journalists

by Paul Lamb
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

Jon Steward did a funny bit last night, referencing how the major news networks were forced to rely on the "hearsay" of Twitter and Facebook postings to understand the events unfolding in Iran. But with the State Department requesting that the good folks at Twitter delay their scheduled site maintenance to keep Tweets flowinng from Iran, you know we have turned a corner. So in all seriousness, in the era of twittering and crowdsourced journalism, are journalists themselves still relevant? Obviously I am not the first person to ask this - or to piss people off by asking it again....

• June 17, 2009
• 7 comments

Social Networking and Political Movements

by Amanda Atwood
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

An upcoming event caught my attention as something I thought other Ideas Lab bloggers and readers might be interested in: Using Social Networking to Marshal the Youth Vote: Online discussion with Rock the Vote director Heather Smith - Tuesday April 7 Very significant elections are coming up in South Africa on April 22, and for the first time in the country's history, there is relatively strong opposition to the governing party. So each party has to campaign hard, and they're reaching out to young voters using Facebook, YouTube and other online media. Join us for a global webchat on April...

• April 1, 2009
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The Includer
Episode 7
Vote For Losers!

by Andrius Kulikauskas
2008 Knight News Challenge Winner

The Includer is the voting machine for ones dreams.(There are no apostrophes on this Bosnian keyboard.) I am blogging thanks to last years Knight News Challenge.  November 1 is the last day to apply this year. What I really like about this contest is that everybody can see your entry.  Here is mine: Help Room.  Please rate my entry and add your comments! Paul Bradshaw (Birmingham City University), Stefan Lewandowski (3form media) and Nick Booth (former BBC journalist) have teamed together to propose Help Me Investigate. Com, an online iterative open-source investigatory community. I was hoping to draw attention to...

• October 29, 2008
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Election Day Could Be Our Own Pangia Day

by Dori J. Maynard
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

When the filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED), her wish was to create one day where people across the world gathered at the same time to watch films produced by international filmmakers. Best known for her film Control Room(film), Noujaim believed the power of the films could help the audience see beyond our differences to the humanity that binds us together. Or, as the tag line declared, "4 hours. 24 films. A new way to see the world." Pangia Day, as it came to be called, took place on May 10th at 18:GMT, 11 am PDT, at...

• June 10, 2008
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Using a Database to Track NY Politicians

by Amanda Hickman
2009 Knight News Challenge Winner

A few weeks ago, I asked a question that I'm still chewing on: what good is all this data ? Sitting the programmers down with reporters is a great advance over abandoning them to some cold dark dungeon, but I think we've got a ways to go to come up with really smart uses of data and database driven content. So, here's one idea: what about a database that tracks local representatives and their plans once they've been pushed out by term limits: the next election will see the first term-limits enforced turnover on New York's City Council. Here's what...

• April 17, 2008
• 2 comments

Crowdsourced Election Coverage

by Geoff Dougherty
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

What with the nonstop drumbeat of presidential campaign news these days, it's easy to forget that we've actually got some other elections coming up. On Feb. 5, primary voters in Chicago will cast ballots for ward committee leaders, the county's chief prosecutor and a slew of other positions. From my point of view this is an interesting deal, because I've never run a news organization's election coverage before. I'm always the guy who comes in afterwards to do the big project on voter fraud. Which is a good thing, because I can't plan my way out of a paper bag....

• January 25, 2008
• 2 comments

The Media's Opportunity to Promote Democracy Online - Get Government to Do It

by Steven Clift
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

As I noted in my IdeaLab introduction, my background is in online citizen engagement. Specifically, I run a non-profit, E-Democracy.Org, that promotes both government and media accountability at the local level through online town halls we call Issues Forums. (Note our Minneapolis discussion of changes at the StarTribune here and here.) In the mid-90's I managed the main website for the State of Minnesota and staffed the Minnesota Government Information Access Council. I am passionate about government's responsibility to play a lead role as the supplier of information "raw materials" for democracy. The media can and should do a much...

• November 12, 2007
• 2 comments

Young Americans Want New Kind of Election Coverage

by Ian V. Rowe
2007 Knight News Challenge Winner

We listened. More than any time in human history, young people have more tools at their avail to consume - and create - information on the issues that are most relevant to them. So to figure out exactly what MTV's approach would be to truly engage young people aged 18-30 during this Presidential election cycle in this new, Wild West era of self-publishing and self-organization, we first had to listen to what young people themselves said they wanted. The results were simultaneously disheartening and hopeful, in the way only young people can express themselves about their future. The MTV/CBS News/New...

• October 15, 2007
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