In 2010 and 2011, the Knight News Challenge supported a diverse set of media innovations—from a platform to help local newsrooms use and analyze municipal data to a tool to help journalists make sense of vast amounts of social media activity.
Executive Summary
Disruption and innovation have become regular features of the news and media landscape. Social media feeds and newsreaders are replacing printed words and pages. Ordinary citizens with smartphones and Twitter or Instagram accounts increasingly stand in for trained reporters. Hacker journalists—wearing the hats of both journalist and coder—crunch massive data sets to find the insights buried within, as major news media organizations struggle simply to keep up with the crowdsourced pace of social media.
Related LinkS
“A new report looks for lessons in successful (and unsuccessful) Knight News Challenge winners” — Aug. 27, 2014 article on Nieman Journalism Lab
“New report provides lessons on advancing innovation in journalism and information” — Aug. 26, 2014 press release
That’s where the Knight News Challenge comes in. Launched in September 2006 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the News Challenge invests in people who are testing new ideas for engaging citizens with news and information. It is an open contest designed to accelerate innovation in the ways that we create, consume, and share news and information by developing new ideas to reach more people more effectively. In each round of the News Challenge, Knight Foundation trustees approve the winners as recommended by Knight staff, with the advice of outside advisers. Since its inception, the Knight News Challenge has provided more than $37 million to fund 111 projects in the United States and around the world.
In 2010 and 2011, the Knight News Challenge supported a diverse set of media innovations—from a platform to help local newsrooms use and analyze municipal data to a tool to help journalists make sense of vast amounts of social media activity. In Vermont, 2010 News Challenge Winner Front Porch Forum uses an online platform to strengthen the sense of offline community in towns and cities across the state. When Hurricane Irene produced record flooding in 2011, Vermonters used the platform to organize community response and to connect towns in need with volunteer help. Across the world, in Indonesia, palm oil farmers use FrontlineSMS—a 2011 News Challenge winner that uses mobile technology to share and disseminate community information—to organize collective efforts to challenge encroachments on their rights by big palm oil corporations.
Knight Foundation hired evaluation firm Arabella Advisors to explore the innovations and impact of these winners. Arabella reviewed grant materials, analyzed Web metrics and social media data, surveyed the winners, and interviewed both winners and key informants in the field. Through that research Knight discerned lessons about what contributes to a successful media innovation. These include the lessons learned listed above.
The Knight News Challenge has evolved significantly since its inception. Knight continues to review the challenge and learn from the winners to help news and information industries navigate the disruption in traditional strategies and uncover new models of sustainability. In the pages that follow we provide additional detail on these lessons, ideas and insights—as well as on the progress of each of the winners of the Knight News Challenge from 2010 and 2011.