MIAMI – Minnesota Public Radio today won the first Knight News Innovation EPpy for its Public Insight Network project, an innovative system for involving radio listeners in the news-gathering process. The award was announced at the EPpy award ceremony at the Interactive Media Conference & Tradeshow and is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Public Insight Journalism is a new way for Minnesota Public Radio journalists to find sources and information for their stories. The centerpiece of Public Insight Journalism is the Public Insight Network – a group [cadre or small army] of thousands of Minnesotans who have agreed to help MPR cover the news.
Says Michael Skoler, managing director of news at MPR: “If ‘establishment’ media organizations can plug into the energy and wisdom of the collective brain of the public, we’ll bring the strength of traditional journalism – editorial judgment, fact-checking, truth-seeking – into a new age of better, more trusted news coverage. If we don’t do this, I think the unfiltered, weblog-type model of journalism will overtake traditional media.”
More information about the project can be found at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/publicinsightjournalism/faq.shtml.
The Knight News Innovation EPpy recognizes new ways of gathering or disseminating news or information that help citizens run their governments and their lives. It honors creative uses of technology that extend the audience for news in the public interest and expand the means and places by which people receive news and make news more engaging and interactive.
Says Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation’s journalism program officer: “Public Insight Journalism is a sophisticated attempt to seek the wisdom of the crowd and channel that wisdom back into the news coverage. When done successfully, it improves the journalism.”
At the same conference, Knight Foundation also announced the first-year winners of the Knight News Challenge, awarding $12 million in grants for news experiments that use digital media to build community in specific geographic areas (more: www.kflinks.com/knc-release).
Knight Foundation is a sponsor of the Interactive Media Conference & Tradeshow 2007, a gathering for the discussion of new media issues attended by media representatives from the business and editorial sides. More information is available at www.interactivemediaconference.com.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change.
For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.