BLOG: Crowdsourcing and its uses in journalism (Teaching Moment)

Evan Popp
Nov 2, 2017
2 min read

Crowdsourcing has myriad uses in journalism. The most important of these, in my opinion, is that it makes journalism into more of a conversation with the reader. Oftentimes, journalists can start to reproduce the conventional wisdom that is present within the circles they exist in. By including people who have different backgrounds than us, journalists are able to broaden our perspective and understand stories on a deeper level.

While it's certainly possible to crowdsource in other ways, social media has made the process of crowdsourcing easier and more accessible. Now, journalists can post questions or requests to Facebook and Twitter and come back after a little bit and have a multitude of responses.

However, crowdsourcing through social media comes with its own set of issues. For example, the accuracy of the information received is always in question with crowdsourcing, but even more so when dealing with information that has been crowdsourced via social media because people can hide who they really are online. And as seen with the botched coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombing based off crowdsourced information, journalists can get crowdsourcing on social media seriously wrong.

Keeping in mind that all crowdsourced information must be verified, here are some ways that journalists can crowdsource on social media most effectively.

Crowdsource across all social media platforms, not just one.
Pay careful attention to the wording of a request to the audience. An unclear request won't get as many responses.
Use the tools of the platform. For Twitter, use hashtags. For Facebook, use Facebook groups.

One last thing that is important to remember about crowdsourcing is that reporters should save a crowdsourcing call for when they believe members of the public may have information that they don't have (such as during investigative journalism projects). If journalists crowdsource for too many stories, they could risk alienating their audience with too many requests for information.

Overall, crowdsourcing can be an extremely effective way of acquiring valuable knowledge. While it's not without its faults, when used the right way, it can yield excellent results.

Image courtesy of Open Knowledge International