Spot.us (Spot Journalism)

in
Amount: 
$ 340,000
Location: 
California
Spot Journalism will provide a new way to pay for local investigative reporting by soliciting financial support from the public. Through this project, independent journalists and residents will propose stories, while Spot Journalism uses the Web to seek “micro-payments” to cover the costs. If enough donors contribute the amount needed, a journalist will be hired to do the reporting. The money has to come from a variety of sources, though. Each project will need many small contributions before being approved in order to avoid personal crusades. In addition to offering a new model for investigative work, Spot Journalism will provide a way to discover the issues important to a community while giving a voice to those who wonder why a given problem is not being investigated.
Organization: 
Spot.us
Link: 
www.spot.us
David Cohn on PBS Mediashift Idealab
Twitter Link: 
@Digidave
@spotus
Winner: 
David Cohn
Bio: 
David Cohn has written for Wired, Seed, Columbia Journalism Review and The New York Times. While working toward his master’s degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Cohn worked as the editor at newassignment.net, which focused on citizen journalism and ways news organizations could explore the social web. Cohn also worked with Jeff Jarvis from Buzzmachine.com to organize the first Networked Journalism Summit, which brought together the best practices of collaborative journalism. He recently became a contributing editor at NewsTrust.net, a non-profit media literacy tool and news filter. Cohn also is the editor-in-chief at Broowaha, an expanding citizen journalism network.
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