The U.K. Guardian recently reported that it will be making its "newslist" public:
We're considering taking this a step further at mountainx.com.
Why not create a story-list platform (probably using a WordPress plug-in like Assignment Editor) that allows visitors to suggest stories that need covering and to vote up or down stories that are already on the list? Visitors could also add comments or email tips to reporters or editors.
Another idea for times of budget shortages: Readers might want to financially support coverage, and could pledge funds toward stories.
And in the event that a citizen wanted to offer their own coverage of a story, that should be possible too, whether it would be commentary or balanced news.
Reactions welcome.
Few documents are more carefully guarded in newspaper offices than the newslist. The mixture of what's coming up and what the editors are hoping for can be so valuable that rivals have even been known to pay for a sneaky look. Some newsrooms I've worked in have relied on code words to describe really juicy stories. Often, it can be an embarrassingly blank sheet of paper – best kept hidden, even from the boss.
The idea of giving this information away before publication might therefore seem to be putting digital dogma before common sense. Just because the internet theoretically allows journalists to give readers a peek behind the curtain by sharing the list with them does not make it a good idea.
We suspect otherwise though at the Guardian. What if readers were able to help newsdesks work out which stories were worth investing precious reporting resources in? What if all those experts who delight in telling us what's wrong with our stories after they've been published could be enlisted into giving us more clues beforehand? What if the process of working out what to investigate actually becomes part of the news itself?
We're considering taking this a step further at mountainx.com.
Why not create a story-list platform (probably using a WordPress plug-in like Assignment Editor) that allows visitors to suggest stories that need covering and to vote up or down stories that are already on the list? Visitors could also add comments or email tips to reporters or editors.
Another idea for times of budget shortages: Readers might want to financially support coverage, and could pledge funds toward stories.
And in the event that a citizen wanted to offer their own coverage of a story, that should be possible too, whether it would be commentary or balanced news.
Reactions welcome.
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