Presentation at Stanford Center for Design Research about collective intelligence in journalism.

1. Crowdfunding and
Crowdsourcing in
Journalism
MA, M.Sc. Tanja Aitamurto
Tampere University, Finland
Journalist, blogger: Huffington Post, PBS MediaShift
tanja.aitamurto@gmail.com
@tanjaaita

2. Keywords
• Collective Intelligence, Crowdsourcing,
Crowdfunding, Open Science, Open
Innovation, Innovations in collaboration,
• Case Study of Spot.Us, a crowdfunding
platform for journalism

3. Spot.Us Model
• Spot.Us: Journalists pitching in public
• Changing conventions in journalism:
• Donors “vote” for their favorite story:
Decentralized editorial power
• Direct reader-reporter connection
• Transparency vs. closed newsrooms
• Unfolding story vs. finished story

5. Theoretical Framework
• Pierre Levy’s notion of CI
• Henry Jenkins: Participatory culture
• Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding as
manifestations of CI and participatory
culture

6. Crowdsourcing
• Open call for anybody to participate
• CS creative talent basis for business: Threadless,
Crowdspring
• Crowdbranding: Cordarounds/ BetaBrand
• Money: Spot.Us, Kickstarter
• Brainpower: Innocentive, Next Agenda/ Institute
for New Economic Thinking - video, GoogleWave
• Time, talent: Guardian, HuffPo in journalism

7. Creative talent

8. Crowdbranding

9. Brain Power

10. Peace Innovation Lab

11. Scientific Problems

12. CoCreationLb

13. Knowledge, opinions

14. Skill, talent, time

15. Crowdsourcing on
Spot.Us
• Money, time (microcredit/community
powered advertising)
• Talent, tips, leads, knowledge
• Reader assignments: Photos, etc.

16. Research Questions
• How does CI impact journalism?
• ... the work of a journalist?
• ... relationship between reporter and reader?
• ... reader’s attachment to journalism, community,
reader experience?
• Method: Semi-Structured interviews with 15
Spot.Us donors (8) and reporters (7)

17. Reporter’s Point of View
• Direct connection to the readers is
gratifying, “personally motivating”
• Donating creates a bond to the readers that
is “beyond professionally motivating”
• “It is more than having it written in a nice style and
formatted properly, things you worry about for an
editor. You worry more about the accuracy, really
honest reporting and presenting the issues correctly,
because these people have directly invested in
you.”(Reporter, 22 years.)

18. • “When I started working on the story (for Spot.Us) I
already knew who the readers are, where as writing a
usual story (in a traditional journalism model)
sometimes it feels like writing for a black hole”
Reporter, 27 years.
• Transparency, direct connection to the readers
is the new motivation for journalists?

19. The Challenge of
Pitching in Public
• even though gratifying, it is challenging:
• Journalists are not comfortable with
pitching in public
• “Will this be a popularity contest?”
• “Pitching in public is scary.”
• Will somebody steal my story?

20. The Challenge of
Market Appeal
• “I’m a journalist, not a salesman.”
• Facebooking, tweeting about the pitch:
“Shaking a tin can.”
• Radically new ownership of the whole story
process - pitching, fundraising, , writing.
• Creative work and commerce coming
together in cultural work (Deuze, 2009)

21. • Creative workers need to see their skills in
commercial terms - vs. creative autonomy,
peer review vs. market appeal
• New metrics in journalism/communication?

22. Donor’s Point of View
• Primary reason to donate: support high quality
journalism, healthy, democratic society
• Donating doesn’t create a strong connection to
journalism, or to the reporter
• Participating as a way to contribute to social
change, social good
• Donating creates a bond to a community, a means
of identity building online - tweeting, facebooking

23. • “I consider this as a donation for the
common good, more than anything else, or
any kind of personal gain.“(Donor, 30 yrs)
• “... finally, I want to see whatever change
the story is trying to bring about,
happen.” (Donor, 23 yrs.)

24. Benefits of
crowdsourcing
• Other than money, not useful reader
contributions
• More facts, not opinions
• Donors/Community members are not
interested in contributing

25. Food for Thought
• Journalism should use more cause-marketing
when selling the product
• “Pay for this story, save the world.”
• Provide tools for identity building - Kachingle

26. • Other than money is not successfully
crowdsourced: More sophisticated way to
have readers/donors participate in the
production process
• New metrics for success in journalism:
impact, social change, direct market appeal
to readers

27. Open Science
• How to use the concept of Open Science in
communications research?
• Paradigm still closed, competitive rather than
collaborative
• CoCreationLb.com - public research diary,
transparent research process, published
transcriptions,
• More?

28. Collective Intelligence
In Journalism
MA, M.Sc. Tanja Aitamurto
Tampere University, Finland
Journalist, blogger: Huffington Post, PBS MediaShift
tanja.aitamurto@gmail.com
@tanjaaita

29. Facts&Figures
• The site launched November 2008
• By April 2010, more than 800 people had
donated
• Average donation $60
• Donations sum up to $100 000.