News Crowdsourcing Goes Mainstream: Caveat Emptor

Gannett Corp. is restructuring the news-gathering organizations at their more than 90 papers, including flagship USA Today, in order to leverage the investigative reporting of readers. Wired News reported on Friday that Gannett has rechristened its newsrooms as “information centers” that will use its websites to solicit user-generated content, including whistleblower tips and investigative details from local readers. It’s a fascinating development that mirrors what’s going on in many other areas of media, like photography and music. It makes great sense to get the masses of readers with time on their hands to do some of the “heavy lifting” that is required for good investigative journalism. Of course, Gannett is already getting criticized by media professionals, who are saying they are just cutting expenses by substituting amateur for professional content. However, as one of the foremost promoters of “pop” news, Gannett is probably already immunized from criticism that their news coverage will now become less serious.

A more serious concern, however, should be over how this user-generated content will be managed. As recent election campaigns have shown, the web is full of false "news" perpetrated by unscrupulous partisans, and user-generated articles in Wikipedia are frequently manipulated for political purposes. A recent article in the New Yorker documents some of the “Dirty WikiTricks” that are now becoming a feature of partisan politics. While it’s unlikely that anyone will be successful in suing Wikipedia for defamation, the deep-pocket Gannett Corporation may not be so lucky. So Gannett would be well advised to not be so quick to lay off those investigative journalists. While their job descriptions may be changing, they will surely still be needed.