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Proposal from knightcontest.com

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The Networked Journalism NYC Community Resource Guide

Primary Contact Name

Ms. Duffie Cohen

Describe your project

Even in the digital age, red tape threatens to strangle the free flow of information. The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism wants to help New Yorkers cut through that bureaucratic tangle with the click of the mouse. We are proposing the Networked Journalism NYC Community Resource Guide, an on-line tool that would help journalists – professional and otherwise – more easily navigate a vast, labyrinthine bureaucracy in the search for what should be readily available public information. Our goals include:

* Creating one-click shortcuts to information on public websites, including nyc.gov, which, while valuable, does not always allow users to cut to the quick.
* Creating navigation tools that would let users to search for specific neighborhood-based information – such as by zip code or block and lot numbers.
* Making newly released documents readily available on-line – and promoting their release, lest they go ignored.
* Using public documents to create databases that could be easily integrated and searched/analyzed.
* Creating easy-to-use on-line data-analyzing programs and tools.
* Encouraging, using a wiki-inspired model, others to submit tips and web shortcuts.
* Creating a “place” where documents, such as public agency internal reports, could be sent anonymously – and be posted after guide directors confirm authenticity.
* Guiding crowdsourced networked journalism projects that would draw upon public documents and combine the ideas and legwork of professional and citizen journalists.
* Teaching citizen journalists how to file Freedom of Information requests, and offering legal support and journalistic guidance.
* Eventually expanding this project from city to city, state to state and ultimately to the federal level. The CUNY J-School firmly believes public information is public power, and that such a project would further the goals of creating more gatherers – and consumers – of local news. We also believe this project would eventually sustain itself through support from news organizations, public interest groups, advertisers.

Primary Contact Email

Duffie.Cohen@mail.cuny.edu

Organization or Business Name

The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism

Who would want to use it and why?

The guide will prove a valuable resource to professional and citizen journalists, speeding the flow and analysis of public information, and allowing reporters to cut through numbers and bureaucratese to see how government affects lives. It also would prove of great use to citizens who want answers to seemingly simple questions: What are the latest test scores at my child’s schools? Where are my tax dollars going? What are the latest crime statistics for my neighborhood?, etc. In addition, the guide would be helpful to academic researchers in multiple areas of study – health, poverty, crime, public safety, education, etc – as they assemble comprehensive reports.

Why are you the best person or organization to develop this project?

The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism is in a strong position to develop this project. The J-School has multiple resources – stellar facilities, faculty, and students as well as the New York institutional know-how – to help get this project running. Our full-time and adjunct faculty is comprised of seasoned journalists, including award-winning investigative reporters from such publications as the New York Times and Newsday. The J-School also has a comprehensive newsroom research facility staffed by two research professionals, and counts research and legal professionals from top news organizations among its adjunct faculty. All students are required to take the Research Methods course, in which they are taught how to find – and evaluate – information from a myriad of sources. As the only publicly supported graduate-level journalism school in the city – indeed, in the Northeast – the J-School has an additional mission of serving the 8 million people of the city through its reportage. The J-School is home to the innovative NYCity News Service, a multi-media, Web-based wire service, that focuses its coverage on the city’s many neighborhoods. Student work, in many media, is made available to media outlets – ranging from community newspapers to major publications – through the News Service, which is run by Jere Hester, former City Editor of the New York Daily News. Hailed by Crain’s New York Business as “leading the charge” in the development of a digital curriculum, the J-School also is home to the New Media Program, headed by Professor Jeff Jarvis, author of the influential Buzzmachine.com blog. The J-School’s dynamic and diverse students are being trained in digital storytelling while undergoing rigorous instruction in traditional hard-hitting urban reporting – all skills that would be valuable in assembling this guide.

U.S. State

Country

United States

What potentially bigger thing might happen if everything went perfectly and the stars all aligned?

The best-case scenario is that The Networked Journalism NYC Community Resource Guide becomes the professional/citizen community journalism equivalent to Google: The place to quickly find the place to get answers. Imagine: a one-stop shopping site for local public information, organized and searchable in ways of use to journalists of all types and the general public. In addition to being a “go to” resource, The Guide will become just as much a “send to” site where government documents – public and internal – will be forwarded along with shortcuts and tools. The Guide will be come a fixture where consumers of media will be able to go deep into data, via links in stories, and produce new leads and journalism of their own.

The Guide eventually would be sustained via:

* Advertising: Local users will be drawn to the site by the resources offered and by journalism produced with The Guide. Advertisers will be drawn by the ever-growing audience.
* Media: News organizations – of all sizes and media – will recognize the value of having such resources readily available to their journalists, giving them an interest in supporting The Guide. The more farsighted news organizations also will recognize that actively engaging the public will generate more consumers of media and, ultimately, a greater demand for quality local journalism.
* Grants: Foundations with an interest in promoting the public good will be natural supporters.

The Guide will foster media cooperation on all levels as it grows, particularly in terms of networked journalism projects. The Guide also will foster competition in the race to break news. The net result will be an increase in investigative local news. This will help feed the 24-hour news cycle with a steady diet of meaningful reportage, and help focus the local debate –from radio stations to blogs to chat rooms to TV news gabfests – on issues of direct importance to New Yorkers. After proving a success in New York, the concept will be extended to other cities, states, etc. and add to the work being done on the federal level.

How will you be able to measure whether or not your project has really made a difference?

The proof of success will be in the quality of the journalism we can demonstrate was produced directly with the help of The Guide – and any changes/results in public policy, etc., that the work brings about. In keeping with the open nature of the site, we will ask citizen and professional journalists to send any links to stories where The Guide and its tools were used. The staff also will keep track of such stories. In addition, we will encourage journalists to discuss – on the site, and in other forums, such as conferences – their methods, what they learned from their efforts and what new documents/search shortcuts, etc, they uncovered. We also will link to any followup stories – and/or assign follow-ups of our own through the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s innovative NYCity News Service, a web-based news service that feed professional-level student-generated community journalism to local media outlets. We also expect to expand the News Service’s partnership with community news outlets to seek their advice and help tailor The Guide to their needs – giving us direct feedback as they use The Guide as a resource to break news. Other signs and measurements of success: •When the public takes an active role in the site, contributing search shortcuts, and unearthing documents that otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to journalistic sunlight. •We will use Google Analytics and/or craft our own program to gauge which tools are being used, how often, etc. This information could be employed to tailor our efforts/concentrate on certain areas. •When city government starts (a.) adopting our methods into its own sites; (b.) seeking our help in organizing information; and/or (c.) trying to make sensitive information harder to find.

Web site

http://www.journalism.cuny.edu

Requested amount from Knight News Challenge

$400000

What unmet need does your proposal answer?

While public information is seemingly more readily available than ever in New York City, via the Internet, there are few places where one can find a direct path to data of use to journalists and the general public. The government’s organizing principals in setting up information often do not echo the needs of the public, and certainly not those of journalists. With so much information going online, there’s a need to ensure that data is not carelessly – or purposefully – obscured. The Guide will strive to make it easier for citizen and professional journalists to work by putting information at their fingertips in a user-friendly format. There’s a thirst for quick paths to information, on many levels. Given the increasingly instant nature of news distribution, stories need to be turned around quicker. Yet we are operating in a new era where many news organizations have less time and resources to do extensive investigative reporting or even give daily reportage the depth and context it needs and deserves. We also are witnessing the advent of citizen journalism, which brings new energy, and, in many cases, expertise to newsgathering projects. But some no doubt will grow frustrated by time limitations and constant slamming into bureaucratic walls. Journalism needs quicker and easier access to public records to produce fresh, hard-hitting, meaningful stories to stem the flow of context-lacking top-down reporting. One great thing about the Web is there is a way to instantly go to the record and keep public servants honest. Writ large, easier access to, and navigation of public records will make people feel as if they are part of the process – by making them part of the process. Much like government, journalism should be a “we” – not an “us v. them.” The Guide could meet an important need by fostering more journalistic involvement on all levels – which would spur more civic activity and heighten a sense of community.

Total cost of project, including all sources of funding

$500000

What specific, unique opportunity do you see that will make this project more successful than others trying to fill that general

The opportunity lies within the walls of the CUNY J-School, bursting with journalistically experienced faculty, a dedication to technology and innovation, eager young reporters and a mission to serve New York City through reportage. Our eyes and ears are our students who are each charged with covering one of the city’s 59 Community Districts. We see the roadblocks they are running into while gathering information – giving us a daily dose of ideas to tailor The Guide for local and citywide reporting. Our faculty and adjuncts have decades of experience working in New York, vast institutional knowledge and urban/government reporting know-how from years at The New York Times, Newsday and the Daily News, among other local outlets. Students contribute to the innovative NYCity News Service (www.nycitynewsservice.com), a multi-media wire service that feeds community news stories to local outlets. The News Service is run by former Daily News City Editor Jere Hester. The J-School also offers an Urban Affairs concentration, which gives students an even more in-depth experience. Research is key at the J-School: Two full-time professionals staff our Research Center. Each student is required to take the Research Methods course – a training ground to find information that will drive stories. In addition, the J-School is tapped into the citizen journalism movement. Professor Jeff Jarvis – Interactive program director and author of the influential buzzmachine.com blog – brought together the worlds of professional and citizen journalism to the J-School for October’s successful Networked Journalism Summit. Faculty members bring varied experiences, but all are dedicated journalists and educators. We think like journalists, not like bureaucrats who sometimes try to hide information – or, at best, have different organizing principals. We train our students never to take no for an answer in dealings with public servants and would bring the same principal to the pursuit of public records as we create The Guide.

Expected amount of time to complete project (in whole years):

2years

How will people learn about what you are doing?

The word will spread – quickly – via:

* The J-School’s faculty and adjuncts, who have deep ties to both the established and new media communities in New York and beyond, as well as to the growing citizen journalism movement.
* The J-School’s NYCity News Service, which has forged relationships with local news media outlets – print and online, alike – throughout the city. The News Service supplies many of these outlets with stories of local interest. The Guide would be of great interest and use to such outlets. The Guide would have a prominent link on the NYCity News Service site (www.nycitynewsservice.com) as well as on the J-School’s main site (www.journalism.cuny.edu). The News Service, hopefully, will break one or more major stories using The Guide. Then, in the cause of transparency (and promotion) – publish on-line the story-behind-the-story, explaining how and where the information was found.
* An aggressive email and public relations campaign with goals of getting the word out in media stories, on blogs, etc. Prof. Jarvis’ widely read – and widely linked to – www.buzzmachine.com would be a natural spot for a mention of The Guide.
* A launch event at the J-School in the form of a conference that would bring together journalists of all kinds.
* Our students, past and present. By the time The Guide is up and running, the J-School will have graduated at least one class of students trained in new media. They will be our best ambassadors, giving us a great opportunity to spread the word through all levels of media.

Do you have any other funding or investment? We’re interested in knowing who else is interested in your project.

The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism is committed to this project and has pledged to provide $100,000 in in-kind resources. We are seeking Knight's support/partnership to get this innovative project off the ground, and will strive to add other funders to build and sustain The Guide as we go forward. We fully expect we eventually will generate advertising revenue as well as support from other grantors and from media organizations that will realize it’s in the interest of their businesses to keep this resource going strong.

Are you working with anyone else to complete this project? If so, please give names and what they would do?

We have no formal partners for this project at this moment. But we plan to informally call upon our many contacts at all levels of journalism for ideas, guidance and details on their own information-gathering experiences as we assemble The Guide. In a grander sense, anyone who contributes documents, shortcuts, punches in data, creates search tools, etc., will be working with us toward completing a venture that surely will have a very long life.

Who else is working in this area? How does your work fit into the larger context of work in this area?

The Sunlight Foundation and its grantees are doing some great work in this area, generating Congresspedia.org, OpenSecrets.org and FollowTheMoney.org, among other extremely useful sites. We certainly will find inspiration, tools – and vital links – through the Sunshine Foundation’s “Insanely Useful Web Sites” as we go forward in creating The Guide. The wiki formats, the displays of reporting, the networked journalism projects and the professional oversight employed by the Sunlight Foundation also would be hallmarks of The Guide. While the Sunlight Foundation’s tools can be localized – how your representative voted on a bill, campaign contribution records, etc – just about all the information stems from federal records. We plan to carve our niche in focusing very locally on New York City and its many neighborhoods. We also come at this project as journalists first, and not necessarily as an advocacy group. We plan to use the Sunlight Foundation’s work in many respects as a model – and hope in turn to create a model of our own that can be used by journalists of all types in municipalities, counties, states, etc. We will ultimately strive, to add to, on the federal level, the ongoing work being done by the Sunlight Foundation and its grantees.

What do you guarantee will happen if you complete the activities in this proposal?

We can guarantee that The Guide will become widely used as a journalistic tool in New York City by professionals and citizen reporters alike. We have no doubt that given our faculty’s deep industry ties, our active student body, the thirst for such a resource and the fast flow of news in this this brave new media world that the word will spread quickly. We can guarantee that users will feel more empowered – and less frustrated – as they search for public information. And we fully expect that users will contribute back in the form of new shortcuts, and by posting important documents that otherwise probably would have gone unnoticed. We guarantee that The Guide will help journalists to do more in less time – increasing quality local journalism at a time when many segments of the industry are in downsizing mode. We can guarantee that those who use The Guide will give seemingly ordinary urban affairs stories more depth – and those who use The Guide for longer-term investigative projects will produce richer work. We can guarantee that anyone – professional journalist, citizen journalist, general member of the public – who has a hard time finding public information online through government sites or phone line will find a clearer path via The Guide. And if anyone ever tells us they can’t find a piece of pertinent public information, we guarantee we won’t rest until we track it down – and share our shortcut online.