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5: New Reporting Methods

  • Page ID
    305506
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    Reporters, editors and photographers all store data digitally. Even if it’s just your list of contacts, learn to manage your data electronically to maximize its usefulness in the future. And open up your reporting to harness the power of the public.

    • 5.1: Introduction
      This page discusses Phil Meyer's 1991 book, "The New Precision Journalism," which addresses the challenges journalists face due to limited resources. Meyer advocates for the use of technology and crowdsourced information to improve efficiency in newsgathering, despite skepticism from traditionalists about modern methods.
    • 5.2: Spreadsheets and Storing data
      This page emphasizes the importance of digital tools in journalism for improved efficiency and data management. Reporters are urged to replace traditional methods with digital solutions, like spreadsheets for organizing contacts and data. An example is NFL reporter Mike Sando’s use of Excel for game statistics analysis. Additionally, it discusses how newspapers can enhance their websites to become data-rich resources, improving accessibility and providing valuable information to readers.
    • 5.3: Your ‘so-called digital life’
      This page emphasizes the significance of digital tools in newsrooms for note-taking, scheduling, and sharing information. It advocates for using web services such as Backpack for task management and establishing shared databases for valuable sources. The text discusses the inefficiencies of traditional data management and promotes the creation of organized content-specific databases, including event calendars and vital statistics, to improve operations and public access to information.
    • 5.4: Crowdsourcing
      This page discusses crowdsourcing in the context of Web 2.0, highlighting its role in community collaboration that often surpasses traditional expert-driven methods. Coined by Jeff Howe in 2006, crowdsourcing involves continuous information production, unlike project-specific distributed reporting.
    • 5.5: Distributed, Collaborative or Open-source reporting
      This page discusses how distributed reporting improves transparency in journalism by engaging readers in the reporting process. Unlike traditional methods that maintain confidentiality, it invites reader contributions, especially for data-heavy stories like compliance checks or elections. Examples illustrate successful crowdsourcing, fostering audience engagement and loyalty, and showcasing the evolution from older techniques to modern, interactive journalism.
    • 5.6: Summary
      This page highlights the challenges news organizations face in staffing and the necessity for journalists to embrace new tools and methods. Don Nelson advocates for reducing traditional reporting practices, like excessive typing, and suggests using electronic data storage and crowdsourcing. It includes practical assignments aimed at transitioning contact lists to electronic formats, exploring shared databases, and identifying collaborative reporting opportunities.


    This page titled 5: New Reporting Methods is shared under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Mark Briggs via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.