Lions, Tigers, and Bears…and Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing has become the new phenomenon in journalism where not only the journalist is involved in a piece of news, but other individuals, not all necessarily a professional in the journalism field.
Still confused at what Crowdsourcing is? Let the founder of the term, journalist, Jeff Howe explain it further below.
Okay, so how can we apply this to an every day news story? Take this story for an example...
Earlier this week, a man climbed into the grizzly bear grotto at the San Francisco Zoo causing a stir among onlookers and zoo keepers. The man was eventually arrested for trespassing and it was found out later that earlier in the day he had threatened family members with a knife. The San Francisco Chronicle, who initially reported on the incident, have also alluded that the man is to be put under psychiatric care.
What sources could I use for this story to make it a crowdsourcing story?
- Workers at the zoo
- Bystanders who saw the event occur
- Police officers
- Family members of the suspect (esp. the family members who were threaten by the suspect prior)
- Medical doctors who preferably have a background in mental illness studies
So what’s the problem with crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing seems to dim the spotlight of the journalist who gathered the information in the first place. This article, even though its not the best example of crowdsourcing, could posses moments of mis-information, especially concerning the suspects medical state. Proper terms and sensitive language must be considered, because if you end up with misinformation about an individual, their reputation and their family’s reputation could be tarnished. Crowdsourcing gets tricky when you are involving an abundant amount of sources, because sometimes not all of the sources are factual.
Final verdict on crowdsourcing
From what has been gathered and what I can sorta of tell, crowdsourcing seems to strip the art of writing and turn it into being “just business” where getting a source and not checking for its creditability are the pitfalls. For someone who sees writing as an artform, and not as just black words on a page, it’s a little disheartening that there are people out there who are only concerned about an article or a story in this fashion, and not with considering the work of the journalist and how they write an article. It almost sounds like the people are more concerned about making a profit or getting their 15 mintues of fame than about the words they are handling. The journalist seems almost obsolete in crafting the story in a way, and that’s not what’s supposed to be occurring.
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Remember, ‘crowdsourcing’ in my book is a “tool” to gather more information about a story that could lead to a more detailed, enriched and informative article. Yes, crowdsourcing can be used – as we see in Jeff Howe’s article – as another revenue-generating tool, if you have the right product and an audience interested in purchasing your product.