:: LNR Journalism ::

ProPublica, New York Times, others: Benefits of becoming a Knight-Mozilla Fellow

PBS Mediashift :: Four news partners that will host 2013 Knight-Mozilla Fellows recently made their pitch for why they're involved with the Knight-Mozilla Fellowship program, what they're hoping to do with their fellows, and why applying to become one may be the best thing you do this week.

A report by Dan Sinker, www.pbs.org

First version of this post appeared on Dan Sinker's Tumblr blog

ProPublica gets $1.9m from Knight to expand its efforts in data journalism

Niemanlab :: ProPublica is getting a $1.9 million data journalism grant from the Knight Foundation, the nonprofits jointly announced on Wednesday. The money will be used to support ProPublica’s News Applications team, including adding one full-time staffer.

A report by Adrienne LaFrance, www.niemanlab.org

Chicago Tribune reviews unauthorized paid speech by Clarence Page

Jim Romenesko :: ProPublica revealed Monday afternoon that Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist and editorial board member Clarence Page was paid $20,000 and travel expenses to appear at a June 23 rally in Paris in support of the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), a controversial Iranian group that’s seeking to be removed from the U.S. government’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Continue to read Jim Romenesko, jimromenesko.com

How ProPublica changed investigative reporting

Guardian :: Paul Steiger is one of the men I admire the most in my profession. Five years ago, at the age of 65, and after a 16-year tenure as the Wall Street Journal's managing editor, he seized the opportunity to create a new form of investigative journalism. Steiger created ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom dedicated to the public interest and to deep dive reporting. Pulitzer prize winner ProPublica has achieved a huge amount in five years with about 33 journalists.

Last wednesday, at the end of quick hop to New York, I paid Paul Steiger a visit.

ProPublica - Continue to read Frédéric Filloux, www.guardian.co.uk

Social media 'cold calls': ProPublica takes a different approach

Niemanlab :: When reporters use social media for crowdsourcing, they’re often just cold calling in the form of a passing tweet — Did you lose your house to foreclosure? Were you the victim of discrimination in the workplace? Have you ever donated your eggs? Contact me for a story I’m working on! ProPublica takes a warmer approach with its recently formed Patient Harm Community Facebook group.

Continue to read Adrienne LaFrance, www.niemanlab.org

Steiger to step down as ProPublica's editor at the end of the year

Media Decoder | New York Times :: Paul E. Steiger, the former longtime managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, will step down at the end of the year as the editor in chief and chief executive of ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative news organization that he started nearly five years ago. Effective Jan. 1, 2013, the project’s managing editor, Stephen Engelberg, will replace Mr. Steiger.

Details - Continue to read Amy Chozick, mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com

ProPublica's crowdsourcing experiments: U.S. Chamber of Commerce advertising spendings

Niemanlab :: Earlier this year, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a multimillion-dollar television ad blitz for (and against) candidates running for federal office, I wanted to know how much it spent to broadcast ads supporting a U.S. Senate candidate in Hawaii. A spokesman for the Chamber wouldn’t provide the figure directly, but it’s the kind of information that’s public two times over: You can get it from the Federal Election Commission or the Federal Communications Commission.

Maybe you’re thinking there has to be a better way.

[Adrienne LaFrance:] With volunteers around the country, the news nonprofit is continuing its efforts to figure out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to crowdsourced reporting.

Continue to read Adrienne LaFrance, www.niemanlab.org

ProPublica's SOPA Opera: Where do your members of Congress stand on SOPA and PIPA?

ProPublica :: Well-funded interests on either side of SOPA and PIPA are lining up support among members of Congress. This database keeps track of where members of Congress stand. Findings are based on two factors: whether a member is a sponsor of the proposed bills, and each member's voting record on the current bills' precursors and alternatives. The list offers various filters. 

Clipped from: projects.propublica.org (share this clip)

Continue to read Dan Nguyen, projects.propublica.org

Launch of the first ever Data Journalism Awards, London, 19 January 2012

Press Release :: The Global Editors Network (GEN) is proud to announce the launch of the first annual Data Journalism Awards (DJA), the international competition recognizing outstanding work in the growing field of data journalism. The GEN initiative is supported by Google and is organized in collaboration with the European Journalism Centre. 

An international jury of data journalism and media experts will select the six winning submissions. Jury members have been selected from prestigious international media companies including the New York Times, Reuters, and Les Echos and the president of the Jury is Paul Steiger, founder of ProPublica. 

[Paul Steiger:] ... journalists and media organisations increasingly use numerical data and databases to gather, organize and produce relevant information. The Data Journalism Awards champions the evolution of this field by rewarding editorial excellence and highlighting best practices in data journalism.

Data Journalism Awards candidates can apply to one of those three categories:

1. Data-driven investigative journalism

2. Data visualisation & storytelling

3. Data-driven applications

Both National/International and Local/Regional projects are welcome and will be judged separately. The work submitted must have been published or aired between 11 April 2011 and 10 April 2012.

A total of €45,000 (around $57,000) will be awarded to the six winning projects. 

As of today, applicants can submit their best data journalism projects at http://www.datajournalismawards.org. The competition is open to media companies, non-profit organisations, freelancers and individuals until 10 April 2012. The six winning projects will be announced by jury members at the annual News World Summit (NEWS!) being held in Paris, France, from 30 May to 01 June 2012 and hosted by the Global Editors Network.

“At Google, we’re keen to help support and stimulate innovation in digital journalism,” said Peter Barron, Director of External Relations.  “We see exciting possibilities of leveraging data to produce award-winning journalism.”

Media partners of the Data Journalism Awards are the Online News Association, journalism.co.uk, OWNI, Wired Italy, AHREF and the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (other media partners added later). 

About the Global Editors Network

Founded in 2011, the Global Editors Network (GEN) is the first non-profit, non-governmental association that brings together editors-in-chief and senior news executives from all platforms – print, digital, mobile and broadcast. By breaking down the barriers between traditional and new media, GEN aims to define an open journalism model for the future and to create new journalistic concepts and tools. GEN brings together like-minded people that are forward thinking and enthusiastic about defining tomorrow’s journalism.

http://www.datajournalismawards.org

Despite of the "age of apps" ProPublica's redesign addresses the mobile web user

Niemanlab :: In what some like to think of an age of apps — smartphone, tablet, or otherwise — it might seem hard to get worked up over a mobile redesign. But last week ProPublica rolled out a new look for small screens that’s pliable and flexible enough to fit across device types and that runs off of the same code as the big-screen site.

[Justin Ellis:] How much bigger is mobile web than mobile apps for ProPublica? Scott Klein, editor of news applications, says it’s “an order of magnitude.”

Continue to read Justin Ellis, www.niemanlab.org