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Introduction to crowdsourcing for journalists and journalism educators. Use of four cases and what we can learn from them. Three cases include maps; the fourth case does not.
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Crowdsourcing(and maps)
Mindy McAdams
Professor, Journalism
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida USA
Example: New York City snow storm December 26, 2010
WNYC Radio: Google Map
December 29, 2010 (3 days after storm):
White = snow not cleared
Michael R. Bloomberg, mayor, New York City, December 2010
WNYC Radio: Google Map
December 30, 2010 (4 days after storm):
Purple = snow cleared
WNYC Radio: Snow Crisis• Over the radio, listeners were asked to text PLOW to
30644, the station’s mobile shortcode• The location of each text was added to a Google Map• The map was posted on the radio station’s website• Each person who texted was asked to also leave an audio
report as voicemail• The audio reports were played on the radio
“It really encourages other people to send in their story and contribute, when they hear people just like them.”
—Jim Colgan, former WNYC news producer
Lessons Learned
1. The audience can help journalists
2. Journalists need to think creatively so they can use this resource well (resource: the audience)
3. Social media can be very useful in crisis reporting
New York City snow storm
Minnesota Public Radio uses this map to show where members of the audience have reported holes in the street (“potholes”).
Instructions: Drag the map and zoom into your pothole’s location, then click once to add details or a photo.
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) partnered with SeeClickFix to produce the pothole map.
Note the number of issues (open, closed) at the top.
Lessons Learned
1. Sometimes you can find the technology needed to produce a project (you don’t need to create it)
2. A project started in 2010 continued being used in 2014
3. Citizens used the map itself to report the location of potholes (instead of sending location in email, by SMS, etc.)
MPR potholes map
Example: Mumbai attacks November 2008
“The Mumbai attacks have unleashed a storm of live updates from residents, swelling traffic and content on sites such as Twitter and Yahoo Inc.’s photo Web site Flickr. A Google map on the attack sites was swiftly put up. A lengthy entry about the attacks on user-generated online encyclopedia Wikipedia surfaced in less than an hour.”
—The Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2008
Wikipedia was used as a reporting platform Current page
Wikipedia was used as a reporting platform As seen on November 26, 2008
Updates were made every 2–3 minutes Wikipedia history: 2008 Mumbai attacks
Google map: Mumbai attacks 2008 Mumbai attacks
Google map: Mumbai attacks
“Al Jazeera English tracked the points of the attack with the help of users
from Google and Twitter.”
Google map: Mumbai attacks
“Al Jazeera English tracked the points of the attack with the help of users
from Google and Twitter.”
Flickr: Immediate photos
“Journalist Vinukumar Ranganathan’s stream of photos were published by CNN
and other major broadcasters.”
Flickr: Immediate photos
“Journalist Vinukumar Ranganathan’s stream of photos were published by CNN
and other major broadcasters.”
Twitter: A stream of updates and live reports Twitter search: Nov. 27, 2008
Lessons Learned
1. Using all kinds of Web sites (Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr), the audience can report on an event without help from journalists
2. Journalists from Al Jazeera English used Google Maps to aggregate citizen reports from Twitter and other sites
3. Again, social media can assist journalists in gathering information during a crisis
Mumbai attacks
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of
taking a task traditionally performed by
a designated agent (usually an employee)
and outsourcing it
to an undefined, generally large group of people
in the form of an open call.
Definition
—Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business (2008)
Example: Investigating MPs’ expenses 2008–2009
A crowd of snoopsWhat: All expense claims
Who:646 Members of Parliament (MPs)
Time span: Five years (2004–2008)
Total documents:
2 million
Question:
How do the reporters
at one newspaper sort through
2 million electronic documents?
Answer:
They don’t.
The Guardian: “Investigate your MP’s expenses” 2009
Simon Willison, a 28-year-old programmer who works for the newspaper, worked hard to make it easy for people to join in and evaluate the documents quickly.
Result: 170,000 documents were reviewed in the first 80 hours after the site went online.
Making it fun
Result: For many famous MPs, all of their documents were analyzed.
2009
Lessons Learned
1. People will contribute their time and their intelligence without any reward if each task is small and not difficult.
2. Journalists can ask the audience to help even in a case where no crisis exists.
3. The journalists (and programmers) must do some work to make the task seem interesting and fun.
Investigating MPs’ expenses
