Monday, November 5, 2007

Beats with a snazzy network

An experiment of sorts with a live, social network contributing to reporter's beats is underway.

NewAssignment.net, an academic "think tank" of news organizations participating in an open platform with citizen journalists and professional reporters, is creating a new project to help beats.

Jay Rosen, a professor at NYU, is leading the project and speaks of it in great length in his blog, PressThink. The goal of this project, according to Rosen, is to test this idea:

"Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there was a “live” social network connected to the beat, made up of people who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that beat to be better."

It would be done in a blogging format, with 12 beat reporters working with contributors outside of the newsroom.

This project could be a really cool way for reporter's to expand their horizons, in a sense, and get greater coverage than ever imagined.

It's things like this that still give me hope for the future of journalism. Who's with me?

1 comment:

Drew R Winter said...

I'm with you, Crystal. I'm with you!