Great Civic Journalism

Democrat & Chronicle's RocDocs

RocDocs is a fantastic section on DemocratandChronicle.com where users can go to search records ranging from how qualified teachers are in their district to how much they're paying police officers for overtime. The newspaper is also inviting users to help be watchdogs.

Nov 26, 2007 | E-MAIL THIS | PERMALINK | DISCUSS

Wall St. Journal to Make Web Site Free, Murdoch says

Update: After reports Tuesday that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the News Corporation, says he expects to make access to The Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, a top Dow Jones executive told Editor and Publisher the comments were premature.

Continue reading "Wall St. Journal to Make Web Site Free, Murdoch says" ...

Nov 14, 2007 | E-MAIL THIS | PERMALINK | DISCUSS

News-Press voted APME's first Innovator of the Year

The News-Press has been named APME's first Innovator of the Year "for its culture of innovation and a series of trend-setting initiatives that include mobile journalists, or mojos, crowdsourcing and a team of watchdog citizens."

Oct 25, 2007 | E-MAIL THIS | PERMALINK | DISCUSS

WNYC's 'Are You Being Gouged?' crowdsourcing results

Here are the results of WNYC's group journalism/crowdsourcing project, “Are You Being Gouged?” WNYC asked listeners to check the prices of three common items in their local store and report it on their website. They'll be announcing the results on air later this week.

They got over 350 contributions and they’ve plotted all the prices on a map at their website. When the show page goes fully live, you’ll be able to click on the icons for any of the items and see the price, the name of the store, the address, and the listener’s comment.

Here are some of the findings based on what the listeners reported:

Most expensive milk: Crown Heights, Brooklyn (2.99 for a quart)
Least expensive place for milk: Gravesend, Brooklyn (99 cents for a quart)
Most expensive place to get beer (6 pack of Budweiser): Greenport, NY (14.99)
Least expensive place for beer: Redhook Fairway (4.49)
Most expensive place to get lettuce (iceberg): Tribeca (3.49)

Very nicely done.
Least expensive for lettuce: Wayne, NJ (0.79)

Oct 7, 2007 | E-MAIL THIS | PERMALINK | DISCUSS

WNYC crowdsourcing: Are You Being Gouged?

WNYC's latest crowdsourcing project asks listeners to go to their local grocery store and find out the price of three goods: milk, lettuce and beer.

You don’t have to buy them (or consume them), but we want to know how much they cost in different neighborhoods throughout the New York area.

Here’s the assignment:

Go to your local bodega, supermarket, or gourmet grocery store and get the prices for our predetermined basket of goods. Here’s the shopping list:

-a quart of regular, non-organic whole milk
-a head of iceberg lettuce
-a 6-pack of 12-ounce Budweiser (bottles)

Then, come back to our website and leave the following information in a comment:
-The prices of these goods
-The neighborhood where you bought them (please give exact address, or at least the block and cross street)
-The name of the supermarket
-Any distinguishing characteristic (e.g. Korean Deli, high-end retailer, etc.)
-Whether or not you were surprised (yes or no)?

You have until next 1 pm on Monday, October 1st to carry out the assignment. This is something you can do in the course of your regular shopping trip, but we encourage you to go the extra mile and report on neighborhoods and stores you wouldn’t normally shop in.
Next week we will report the findings, along with a map showing the most expensive and least expensive neighborhoods, and talk about what they mean on the air.

Sep 24, 2007 | E-MAIL THIS | PERMALINK | DISCUSS

WNYC Radio crowdsourcing project

The Brian Lehrer Show on New York Public Radio, WNYC, is working on an interesting crowdsourcing project this week. Associate producer Jim Colgan tells CyberJournalist.net," We're asking our radio listeners to commit an act of journalism. We're asking them to count the number of SUVs on their block, compared to the number of cars. It's our first foray into the crowdsourcing, and what's being called Pro-Am journalism. With all the talk of environmental sustainability in the city right now, we're trying to find out just how many gas-guzzling SUVs are at our doorstep. We'll look at the results of the assignment on our show later this week (Thursday), and look at what it means with an expert."

Are you working on or have you completed an interesting crowdsourcing project? E-mail editor (at) cyberjournalist.net or submit it here.

Jul 31, 2007 | E-MAIL THIS | PERMALINK | DISCUSS