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peiqianlong, via Flickr (CC license)
What's Knight looking for in the next News Challenge round? More young people, and more people from outside the U.S. |
Gary Kebbel, journalism program officer for the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, did much of the heavy lifting involved in choosing the first round of
News Challenge grantees.
I recently spoke with Kebbel about how the winners were selected, as well as the larger goals of the $25 million, five-year News Challenge grant program. (Full disclosure: As are all the authors of this special News Challenge series, I'm a recipient of one of these grants.)
Tidbits: Most of the winning projects apparently can complement, but don't necessarily depend on, mainstream news organizations. Was that deliberate?
Kebbel: That was totally purposeful. The idea there is that mainstream news organizations simply are not spending enough on research and development, or on training.
Previously Knight stepped in to supply training. Now we're supplying R&D.
We hope to goodness news organizations look at our News Challenge projects and see how to use or adapt them. We want to bring news organizations together with News Challenge winners so our grantees can get valuable feedback, and so news editors will realize how these efforts can be valuable.
If news organizations are not doing R&D, we absolutely know that someone else will. It could happen that without News Challenge, a tech company might undertake this R&D. However, we'd prefer that the people developing cool new digital products be aware of the importance of free press in a democracy; that they're grounded in journalistic values, principles and ideals.
Tidbits: What's special about the winning projects and ideas? Why did you pick them?
Kebbel: Even though we received 1,650 applications last year, we were only considering projects that:
- Involved innovative uses of digital media
- Would help to build, bind or create a sense of community
- Focused on a specific geographic area
- Would agree that the results of their work would be available to all -- free, open source, and open standards.
Applying those rules cut out a lot of applications immediately.
After that, we wanted to fund projects that offered the broadest appeal and greatest replicability. We don't just want to fund cool projects, but projects that will continue to be cool and continue to grow and take on a life of their own. The hope is that these projects will continue to grow and improve after our funding goes away.
| RECENTLY IN NEWS CHALLENGE SERIES
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Tidbits: Was Knight trying to achieve a certain mix of projects that would combine into some sort of "meta project?"Kebbel: I wish I was smart enough to say yes. However, by the time we got down to a near list of winners we realized we had people who knew the whole field of digital media -- not just their own area of focus.
The best thing we can do to strengthen these projects and interrelate them would be to get everybody talking about them. We want to create trust in this group and help the grantees share expertise. So that's why we're creating networking [a private forum and public weblog] to foster a sense of community among the grantees.
So a "meta project" may emerge from all this, eventually. We would be delighted if that happens.
Tidbits: There's going to be a public blog co-written by all the News Challenge winners. Why might news organizations be interested in reading and commenting on it?
Kebbel: You've got 25 people who, if they're not reinventing parts of the future of journalism and digital media, they're certainly advancing and proving it. Why wouldn't you want to read about that?
These grantees have gone through a process and been identified as creative, thoughtful people who are trying to solve your problems. You can learn a lot from their process of problem solving, and of running up against walls. You can watch their discussions occur live.
Give them feedback. Help shape their projects.
Tidbits: Many of the first round of grantees are people who are already fairly well known in new media circles. Why was that -- especially since one of the goals of News Challenge is to bring "fresh blood" into community journalism?
Kebbel: We definitely want fresh blood -- particularly young people and more international applications. In our first year, we were focused mostly on getting the News Challenge contest up and running, and marketed.
In our second year we're expanding. In particular, we'll be doing more marketing to youth and internationally (in nine languages).
Yes, we wanted newcomers to the media scene -- especially people with a technology background. We didn't get as many proposals from them as we wanted, perhaps because of how we marketed it. Also, regarding many proposals we did get from newcomers, we weren't sure of their capacity to pull off the project.
But even though many of our grantees are not newcomers to the digital media world, they are relative newcomers to the traditional media world.
We ended up giving support to some very good digital projects and talented people who have been struggling without it. They're now on solid ground. Many of them are proven winners.
Tidbits: What are you looking for in next year's News Challenge grants?
Kebbel: More young people. To do that, we're creating partnership with MTV. We'll set aside $500,000 of the News Challenge fund specifically for awards to people 21 and younger.
Tidbits: Will there be anything different about the News Challenge application process for 2008?
Yes. We start taking new applications on July 1, and the process is significantly different. First of all, it's going to be handled completely via the Web.
Also, applicants can choose either an open or closed route. When you submit your application, you can choose to make it available online for anyone in the world to see, comment on, and rate. We're partnering with Neighborhood America to provide this service.
Based on comments and feedback, applicants can decide to refine their application for consideration. Applicants who get chosen to submit a full proposal, those proposals also will be open for the world to comment on.
Of course, any applicant can opt to keep their projects or ideas private. Business-venture proposals will automatically be kept private.
