Finally One Example of Collaborative Journalism

How will this start changing the game? Josh Korr of Publishing 2.0 reports that about a week ago, four journalists from Washington state began reporting a major local story in collaboration with each other on Twitter. Writes Korr:

Those four journalists weren’t in the same newsroom. In fact, they all work for different media companies. And here’s the best part: Some of them have never even met in person.

Could journalists have discovered the same thing we have also been exploring collectively online? That collaboration strengthens a network and draws more readers, not less. I also agree with Korr that news organizations need to start investing in smart journalists who get the power of cooperation. 

To summarize what these fine professionals did:

1. Acted in real time and focused on the reporting of the events - in line with the Twitter culture of immediacy as well as a sense of urgency for their readers at the respective mastheads
2. Collaborated with each other to cover the story as it was unfolding instead of worrying about the credit - imagine the first cross-news organization team that wins a Pulitzer, now wouldn't that be news? 
3. Provided higher quality news than just one person doing the reporting.

There was some skepticism in the comments to Korr's post. Maybe this is not the first time journalists network for a news story. This collaboration so open on Twitter seems quite novel to me.

I know some of my readers are journalists or are studying journalism. What possibilities do you see with this kind of model? As news media companies struggle to turn a profit, would journalism become disintermediated from the news organization? Clearly at some point, someone needs to earn a salary to make a living. Would such a direction be sustainable?

See also Bradshaw's presentation on business models for news online.

[diagram of networked journalism courtesy of Paul Bradshaw, online journalism blog]

Comments

[Brian DR1665]

I think these journalists are onto something really big, here. By collaborating to report the story in real time, as real people, they establish a sense of legitimacy among their readership. Rather than being viewed as typical, sensationalist puppets of the mainstream media, they are viewed as peers who ensure they share something important with their communities. News becomes credible again.

As these "real" journalists build greater followings, they become more valuable to the news outlets. It could be that this sort of collaboration shifts the trend to the reporters developing the networks and market, and the news networks merely supply the venue in which they practice their art. Unless I'm mistaken, this would be a completely new business model for the news industry.

[Liz]

This is the big question for the future of journalism, isn't it? The way journalism is currently financed doesn't bring optimum results - collaboration is hindered by revenue sharing concerns, and there is an incentive to focus on 'sensationalist' topics to attract more readers.

The online model seems to exacerbate these disadvantages.

Sure the internet is helping collaboration, but I don't know if anyone is actually making a profit from that, or rather people are collaborating because it's in their nature (please prove me wrong!)

You can disintermediate the content production and this will probably improve the quality and possibly the credibility of the end product. However, the organisations which commission / publish the work still have to find a way to make money, and this is the most pressing problem.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Brian - part of me says "yay!", part of me knows that news organizations are not built that way and will not be able to sustain that kind of collaborative effort. Heavens, even inside the same company people still fight for who gets the credit! It will be interesting to see what develops from these kinds of initiatives. I'd love for something new to happen in the news industry. Or maybe the industry goes and the news becomes supported in totally new ways.

@Liz - people collaborate because it's in their nature and especially when there are no incentives to do so. The incentive thing and one variable conversation need some serious revisiting in light of current events. Digital media will go two ways - hyper local and hyper mass. It already has.