I’m still working with Jeff Howe on the Crowdsourcing book. Still working with Jarvis on the aftermath of the Networked Journalism Summit. Still always looking for more things to do.
And today comes the begining of a really exciting new project
Via Boss Rosen at PressThink
Are there network effects in beat reporting? Across
the US, a dozen reporters (with beats) are going to try to find
outâ??simultaneously. This will improve their odds of succeeding. I’m
still recruiting participants, so read on…
Below is a
lightly revised version of a letter that went out last week to a number
of professional news organizationsâ??some big and famous, some small and
unsungâ??asking if they want to participate. My goal is 12 willing beat
reporters at 12 supportive newsrooms. I have about 7 to 8 of the 12
signed up now. This will be NewAssignment.Netâ??s third major project,
after Assignment Zero and OffTheBus. You can email me or leave a comment if you wish to be involved.
This is a simple project testing a single idea:
Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there
was a â??liveâ? social network connected to the beat, made up of people
who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that
beat to be better.
Thatâ??s the entire ideaâ??so far. Beat reporting with a social network: can we get it to work?
This is probably best done on a blogging-style platform at an
established news organization that can devote a pro reporter to work
with a circle of â??amsâ? or contributors from outside the newsroom. Thus,
beat blogging with a social network is another name for the
same idea. Bring knowledge, contacts and interests of many different
people from around the beat into the production of news, views and
information for the beat, by making use of social networking tools that
lower the cost of collaboration and make it viable for dispersed groups
to become an editorial force.
The tools for social networking are by now advanced enough that a
live forum like that, nurtured by a clever reporter with flexible
skills, could become the working heart of an online beat, which could
then feed other platformsâ??the daily print edition, a weekly supplement
or magazine, a podcasting schedule, a radio program.
Letâ??s figure out how itâ??s done! For that we need to do organized
proof-of-concept work. But I have a way to keep the organization to a
minimum. Twelve reporters (with supporting editors) in twelve editorial
â??shopsâ? build the social network that makes sense for that beatâ?? and
for that shop. They design it. They run it. They fund it. They venture
into it independently but simultaneously with others trying similar
combinations.
Doing your own thing when eleven other newsrooms are doing the same
thing their way raises substantially the odds of succeeding. But to get
the benefits there has to be a forumâ??a common spaceâ??where networked
beat reporters, with their editors, can compare notes, share problems,
test tools, â??fail well,â? and of course watch how others do it, so as to
get ideas for oneâ?? self.
Thatâ??s NewAssignment.Netâ??s
job: weâ??ll create the common space and make sure it works for the
people whose by-lines and news brands are invested in these newfangled
beats. We will also feed into the experiment the best thinking from
outside professional newsrooms. I will share some of the ideas I have
for how to approach beat blogging with a social network. While there
may be advice, there is no consent. Participants run their beats their
way.
As I announced at the Networked Journalism Summit in New York (Oct. 10) and the Online News Association in Toronto (Oct. 17-19) and the Journalism Leaders Forum in the UK (Oct.
16), I am pulling together a core group of practicing beat reporters to
dive into this work, knowing thereâ??s back-up available. My target
number is twelve: twelve beats and twelve sites from across the
editorial landscape. By â??backup availableâ? I meanâ?¦.
- The eleven other sites where beat reporters are also building social networks into their beats.
- NewAssignment.Netâ??s David Cohn
will be the projectâ??s connector, compiler, human switchboard and
resident journo-geek, making sure that progress is noted, lessons get
circulated, common problems are spotted early, and the best tools get
tried. He will also run the mailing list for reporters and editors, and
the website where the results accumulate.
- New Assignment.Net will bring intellectual capital from its
network to specific problems and new knowledge needs as they arise in
the doing of networked beat reporting.
- We will try for at least one conference event where we can
bring the network together terrestrially. Timed right, such meetings
can solidify best practices.
- â??Philosophical backup.â? Via my own writing at PressThink,
Huffington Post and Idea Lab (the new Knight News Challenge Fund site)
I will explain the ideaâ??beat blogger with a social networkâ??and place it
in the larger online journalism picture, drawing attention to what the
twelve beat writers are doing. My goal would be to build an audience
for the work among people who follow innovations in journalism and new
media.
- A new site, www.beatblogging.org (which is not operating yet)
will contain tools, lessons, a group blog for reflections, and a handy
way to follow all the live beats going on simultaneously in the
project. It will also track, document and explain the project, what we
are doing and why, so others can get it and follow progress. By
subscribing to beatblogging.orgâ??s feed, weekly email service or
bookmarking the site, anyone can follow the progress at our test sites,
plus the thinking, analysis and tool building going on in the projectâ??s
commons.
- NewAssignment.Net, with partners (more likely) or on its own
(possibly), can have new tools and applications built specifically for
beat blogging with a social network, should the practical need arise.
First option will be to use existing technology to keep new costs and
delays as close to zero as possible.
The key participants and featured players in the experiment are
obviously the individual reporters with beat responsibilities who want
to give it a try. But the leadership of the news organization has to be
in on the deal from the start and committed to trying a networked
approach in one beat. In that sense the participants are the â??shopsâ? (a
dozen newsrooms) that nominate a beat reporter for the project and
create a home page where it lives onlineâ??a url for the beat.
Thereâ??s your minimum standard for participation. Itâ??s five things: a
reporter, a beat, a url for the new, networked beat home page, one
supportive editor on the â??webâ? or new media side, one supportive editor
on the â??newsâ? side.
In addition to the reporters themselves, supervising editors are key
participants because they have to be in on the larger scheme, fully
understand it and support it with whatever resources are required. Same
goes for the web division of the news organization: an active sponsor
is needed.
Now for a more detailed FAQ:
Isnâ??t this what beat reporters already do?
Beat reporters have always had networks of sources, of course, but
the sources havenâ??t been connected to one another, or able to
self-publish; they havenâ??t been social networks at all. And we didnâ??t
have the easy tools for Web-based collaboration that we have now, like
group blogs, wikis, Facebook groups and so on.
To better understand the difference, take the Rolodex of a typical
beat writer and imagine all the scattered but well connected people in
it wired together. Pooling their knowledge for the good of the beat,
they also get something from participating in its daily buzz; itâ??s
river of news. We havenâ??t â??alwaysâ? had a reporting system like that.
From the reporting staff, whoâ??s right for this project?
Reasonably Net-savvy. Committed to working in an interactive way but
for the sake of real journalism. Open to doing things with different
premises. They do not have to be â??techiesâ? in any sense, or citizen
journalism evangelists. But they do have to believe that readers and
listenersâ??amateursâ??have a lot to contribute; they ought be interested
in working closely with non-journalists to improve beat coverage.
Reporters chosen for the project should be able to handle a certain
amount of uncertainty and fuzziness at the outset, since itâ??s not like
we have a formula for doing this. Itâ??s great to have people who are
excited about learning new, social media skills, who want to be part of
the solution for how journalism thrives on the open Web.
What kind of beats would work best?
Beats where it is relatively easy to identify the people â??out thereâ?
who have hard won knowledge, an invaluable perspective or a network of
their own, the kind of â??assetsâ? the reporter is likely to need to do a
better job in covering the beat.
I picture a reporter in the Hampton Roads, VA
area who is responsible for covering family life in the military for a
sprawling region, with a lot of big bases. The reporter isnâ??t on those
bases, or in the military. Getting an overview is hard because there
are so many places where the story is happening.
But there are a lot of people around Hampton Roads with pieces of
that story, who have built-up knowledge about it, vital glimpses into
it, who might want to connect with other pieces, other glimpses, other
people. Theyâ??re online and connectible. To some degree theyâ??re already
connected. Whatâ??s it going to take to get them to join your beatâ??s
social network? What kind of contractâ??trustâ??emerges between reporter
and network? These are some of the first questions participants in the
project will have to answer.
Dan Gillmor, formerly of the San Jose Mercury News, put it as well
as it can be put. â??My readers know more than I do.â? Beats where that
statement is true and obvious to the reporter are probably the best.
Is there anyone doing anything like this now?
Iâ??m sure there is. Hereâ??s
an interview with a Wired.com columnist who runs an online forum at her
site that is intimately related to her beat. The forum feeds the beat
and helps her keep track of stuff she might otherwise miss. Thatâ??s the
kernel of the approach Iâ??m suggesting. Know of other examples? Spill.
What size social network is anticipated?
This is hard to say because I think the answer is going to vary a
lot, but I was imagining a reporter starting with about 20-40 people as
a core group, and seeing how that worked. That figure is really a
guess. Your guess is as good.
In choosing participants for the reporterâ??s network, what sort of criteria should apply?
Obvious criteria. They should be people with the kind of knowledge,
insight, experience, perspective or contacts that are likely to be
valuable to the reporter, given the issues the beat visits. They should
be diversely placed across the beat: from different institutions and
levels of responsibility. (In education: administrators, teachers,
parents, students, alums, board members, union officers, vendors,
pols.) Get lots of points on the dial, but make it a tight dial in the
sense of sharply defining what is â??inâ? the beat, and outside it.
Participants should represent the different perspectives and
stakeholders normally found in news coverage on the beat, and those not
normally found but needed to round out, spread out and plain olâ??
improve beat coverage. They should have diverse views and opinions
while at the same time sharing a common â??fieldâ? of newsy interest. They
should be able to get along without fisticuffs. Some might fit the
category of expert, but others might not. More important than formal
credentials is: they know territory that is central to the beat. The
system as a whole covers the waterfront.
Letâ??s say we decide to join up, and we have a reporter with
a challenging beat, fully briefed and ready to give it a goâ?¦ what
happens then?
Your mileage may vary. I see these initial tasks in the first month or two:
1.) Pull together the network by picking the right people and asking
20-40 of those people to join as â??friends of the beat;â? includes
figuring out what to say (what terms to offer) in the letter requesting
their participation. It also means working on the give-get bargain:
what do participants give, what do they get out of it? (See this post, â??Grok their motivations and they may contribute.â?)
2.) Decide on tools: the initial methods by which the reporter will
convene the network, get it running, and communicate with it: blogging
platform, mailing list, online discussion forum, wiki, Facebook group,
weekly conference call, or some combination of forms.
3.) Come out with an adaptable home page (with a unique url) for the
newly networked beat that displays the reporting, but also other fruits
of the network, as well as other beat information. News feeds,
aggregation, lists and calendars, weights and measures. The beat
blogging with a social network home page must be a tool in
motionâ??versions of it keep coming out.
4.) Run a few simple trials to test how well the network works in
providing concrete assistance to the beat reporter in doing particular
stories, investigation or news features. The sooner these small raids
can start the better for the big battles later.
If we decide weâ??re in, what do we need to do?
First, you need to designate a reporter and a beat. Then I need a
â??weâ??re inâ? letter via email stating your willingnesss to participate,
and a bit about why, how this fits into what you are doing. It should
include three names, with their titles, email addresses and phone
numbers. 1.) The beat reporter chosen and a short description of his or
her beat; 2.) an editor on the new media, digital, interactive, online,
or innovation side of the operation, who will support the work, and 3.)
the editor with direct supervisory responsibility over the beat
reporter, who also has to be in on the deal and supportive.