MIAMI - The Knight News Challenge, a contest by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, gives away $5 million in 2009 to support smart, innovative solutions to inform and inspire communities. (source: www.newschallenge.org)
The foundation plans to invest at least $25 million over five years in the search for bold community news and social media experiments. In 2008, 17 winners were awarded over $5 million dollars. Their projects were from around the world and addressed a wide range of issues.
One of the most journalism-linked inventions was David Cohn idea, the Spot Journalism. Spot Journalism will provide a new way to pay for local investigative reporting by soliciting financial support from the public. Through this project, independent journalists and residents will propose stories, while Spot Journalism uses the Web to seek “micro-payments” to cover the costs. If enough donors contribute the amount needed, a journalist will be hired to do the reporting. The money has to come from a variety of sources, though. Each project will need many small contributions before being approved in order to avoid personal crusades. In addition to offering a new model for investigative work, Spot Journalism will provide a way to discover the issues important to a community while giving a voice to those who wonder why a given problem is not being investigated.
16 more interesting useful inventions were have already won support to be executed. In 2009 there is a new challenge for everybody, from all around the world to bring their ideas to life. The deadline is on the 1st of November, and the application form can be find on the official website of the Knight News Challenge.
