Independent news media lends a hand to investigative journalism

With the current setbacks of the news broadcasting industry, such as heavy budget cuts and the popularized CNN effect, non-profit independent news media in North America are working to fill the gap in the fourth estate left by the erosion of investigative reporting by delivering news to the public through collaborative grassroots journalism.

In Toronto, OpenFile is “a collaborative community news site connecting citizens to their city and the reporters who cover it. Started by veteran journalists, Craig Silverman and Wilf Dinnick, OpenFile invites people to sign up to submit their story ideas to the editors. Then, the editors assign the story to OpenFile reporters to cover the story.

An interest for this kind of investigative journalism has clearly been demonstrated by the significant contributions from investors who are helping to fund these initiatives. At the University of British Columbia, students in the International Reporting Program were awarded an Emmy for their documentary, "Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground", that followed the trail of electronic waste across the developing world. The program was made possible due to a $1-million gift from Vancouver philanthropist Alison Lawson.

Bilbo Poynter, founder of the Canadian Centre for Investigative Reporting, highlights several recent major developments in independent news media across North America in his article on J-Source.ca:
• $1 million to National Public Radio (NPR) to expand their states coverage

• The Huffington Post announces its I-Fund will merge and be absorbed by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), growing their staff of investigative reporters and researchers to over 50

• $1.7 million to the CPI from the Knight Foundation (the single biggest foundation funder of investigative journalism in the U.S.)

• The co-ordinated release of dozens of regional articles derived from a Freedom of Information release the CPI obtained which revealed that many U.S. lawmakers publicly opposed to stimulus spending nevertheless privately campaigned for it for their districts (clearly a banner couple of weeks for the venerable CPI, whose own coverage appeared in the Washington Post.)

Click here to read Bilbo Poynter’s article at J-Source.ca