Googling Google

Christopher Dawson, Sam Diaz and Matt Weinberger

Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

By Christopher Dawson | October 27, 2010, 7:44am PDT

Summary: Google’s investments in 21st century journalism probably won’t sit well with Rupert Murdoch, but just might make a real difference in what local journalism means in a post-Twitter world.

These days, $5 million dollars isn’t that much, especially when you’re Google. However, $5 million dollars can also go a very long ways when it’s combined with the efforts of non-profits like the James L. Knight Foundation and seeded internationally to fund innovations in journalism. Google itself has played a significant role in changing the face of journalism and, some would say, the death of print media. However, these funds, focused on novel, grassroots approaches and experimentation in journalism in a post-Facebook, post-Twitter world, may very well bring about important new ways of producing and consuming authentic content.

As Google announced yesterday in a blog post,

We’ve granted $2 million to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has a proven track record of supporting programs that drive innovation in journalism. It will use $1 million to support U.S. grant-making in this crucial area. The other $1 million will augment the Knight News Challenge, which is accepting funding proposals from anyone, anywhere in the world, until December 1. Now in its fifth year, the News Challenge has supported projects like DocumentCloud, which aims to bring more investigative-reporting source material online so anyone can find and read it.

The Knight News Challenge is an exciting program in and of itself. You can check out a brief video from one of last year’s Knight Challenge winners to get an idea of just how Google is spending its philanthropic funds:

Details on the remaining $3 million to be invested internationally will be forthcoming early in 2011, according to the post. However, it’s clear that these funds will help develop journalism as a foundation for democracy. The blog post opened with this statement:

Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy. So as media organizations globally continue to broaden their presence online, we’re eager to play our part on the technology side…

Given Google’s troubles in China over the last year, it’s no wonder the company is sensitive to the way news is collected and disseminated, particularly outside the United States.

While critics of Google’s approach to and domination of online news are plentiful, the company reflects a more 21st century view of journalism and the power of the technology to transform how we obtain information (though, clearly, they would prefer that you obtain it via Google):

As Thomas Edison once said, “When there’s no experimenting, there’s no progress. Stop experimenting and you go backward.” We look forward to working with the journalism community to help digital news move forward.

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Google Inc., Journalism, Grassroots Journalism, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

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Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

Good.
james347
27th Oct 2010
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As long as it moves forward

to Google's benefit first and foremost.
John Zern
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

Not understanding why Google would waste $5 million doing this when they can just steal the news data like they have been doing all along.
Loverock Davidson
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

@Loverock Davidson
Some people don't see aggregation as stealing, especially when just a few sentences from the article are listed and the link to the article is provided. I won't read through the thousands of online newspapers out there, but if there is an interesting synopsis on the article, I will go take a look.
tbuccelli
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

@tbuccelli

Embarrassed to say that I agree with Lovey on this one. You call it aggregation, others might call it scraping, but the fact is that Google makes most of the advertising dollars on work done by the newspapers. The solution is not to block Google as, Rupert Murdoch is doing, but to negotiate a bigger cut of Google's advertising revenues. It is nice that Google finds the articles, but somebody has got to pay the qualified reporters (not the bloggers who sprout up like mushrooms).
jorjitop
30th Oct 2010
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Sounds like another George Soros attempt

When a company run by progressives talks about "journalism", they are really investing in the concept of dominating the public discourse with liberal talking points.

It's interesting to note that George Soros just made a similar $1.8 million donation to NPR to "hire 100 journalists".

Why is all this money being spent on hiring "journalists"? You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out.

Kinda sounds like the old myth Obama perpetuates that the reason he's sinking in the polls is because he's not "communicating enough". Better get those "journalists" out there to "communicate more".
Speednet
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

@Speednet how does partisan politics have anything to do with this? Do you have an actual basis or are you just showing your political bias? Journalism is at the core of the 1st ammendment and without advances in the field, good objective journalism will fall to the opinion bloggers and mass media. Whether you consider yourself "progressive" or not, progress happens and you can either lead, follow or get left behind.
Greenman76
27th Oct 2010
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"Progressive" is far from "Progress"

@Greenman76 - Progressives want to take us back to European socialism. That is the opposite of progress. Even Europe is getting away from it, because it was a total failure, resulting in anarchy and the destruction of entire cultures. Check out France right now if you're wondering what "anarchy" is. It was started when they wanted to raise the retirement age by two years to 62. The diaper-laden "adults" over there had a tantrum. That's what socialism'l do to ya.

Want another example? Go back a couple months to Greece. Same deal. Same failed socialist policies, trying to undo the damage. Same tantrums caused by more diaper-laden "adults".

Now then, partisan politics has everything to do with this. It is prompted by the left's fright at seeing average Americans rise up and get a clue as to what is being done to their country. The left is eager to hide their work behind "journalism" that can tell you all the good that is being done, and how those angry, evil "tea baggers" are scaring everyone.

Undoubtedly, the "grass roots" journalists (i.e., bloggers incognito) will be college-age young adults, who have yet to experience the world, and still have that fresh glean of progressive varnish obscuring their vision. Do you have any doubts about these youngsters' partisan political opinions? I sure don't. But maybe that's because I have a bit more experience under my belt, and perhaps a notch or two more in wisdom.
Speednet
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

Hooray for teh professional journalisms!
jmwells21
27th Oct 2010
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Is anyone really buying this line any more?

Does anyone really believe this is being done for the reasons advertised?

Google works for its investors/financial backers and to that end everything they do is for the benefit of those backers and NOT for the masses.

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A DEMOCRACY?

A Democracy is a long term plan to use politics to convert a free and populous that whose laws are built on freedoms of the individual and convert it in a way so as to enslave said populous in a way that they thank you for enslaving them; at least until it?s too late for the populous to realize they?ve been duped. This is why the US is NOT a Democracy but a Representative Republic or at least it was in the beginning.

WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF A DEMOCRACY?

A Democracy is 7 wolves and 3 sheep debating what?s for dinner after being stuck in the desert for several days without any food.
BlueCollarCritic
27th Oct 2010
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Well, you're close

@BlueCollarCritic - The USA is a Democratic Republic, and has been since the Constitution was written.

The "Republic" part is the representatives that speak for us in Washington, and the "Democratic" part is where each of the citizens can vote for their representative.

I think the last true democracy was ancient Greece. A true democracy is when every citizen votes for everything that needs to be decided. Obviously that is unworkable in a big country.

Your example makes it sound like you think democracy is a bad thing. I think it's served us pretty well for the last couple hundred years.

Democracy goes bad when the true intentions of the politicians are hidden from view by a complicit media, which has taken sides in the political debate of ideas.

Fortunately, this election season has seen the ascendancy of an informed and motivated electorate, who is unwilling to allow a "ruling class" (consisting of members of both political parties) to alter the face of the country into a distorted version of Europe.
Speednet
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

The real blow to newspapers was not Google, but Craig'slist. If you talk to online news sites they will tell you they gets tens of thousands of hits to their Web sites from Google news.

Of course, Google, like any company, usually does stuff to benefit itself, but its owners are also capable of seeing the bigger picture and doing things for the benefit of society.

And, fortunately, Google's interests and society's interests are often -- not always -- well aligned.
ShowMeGrrl
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

It will be interesting to see if this is really just another attempt, a la George Soros, to pay young journalists to dig dirt on anything that stands in the way of Big Govt and the Obama Express. I don't know...I'm just saying it is an interesting coincidence at the same time news emerges of the Soros investment in NPR "journalists."

Update: Kudos to Speednet for raising this issue earlier (saw that post after I wrote this one).
wls
27th Oct 2010
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RE: Google invests $5 million in grassroots journalism

Journalism in general is bias. Look at the chain from learning to be a journalist to working on the job having your editor cut and paste your stories to craft the view of the news the way you want to public to perceive it. There is no objective journalistic media source. Media companies operate under a profit. Journalists in general are liberal. Does that mean they can't be unbiased. No. It does mean that there is a bias that must be dealt with to truly put out a a politically agnostic view of the news. Words/news has power otherwise why would Google do this?
gbohrn@...
28th Oct 2010
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Journalists have one goal in common...

@gbohrn@... To attract readers or viewers so they will be exposed to the advertisers. They used attention-grabbing headlines in order to do this. They won't get the attention if they write articles everybody agrees with. They are naturally attracted to controversy. If they seem liberal, it's for the controversy. If they choose a conservative view, they will attract those who object to the liberal view. It balances better that you think. In countries where the general population might be considered liberal, it's the conservative reporters who catch the flack. It's all about selling ad space.
And consider this: If the "liberal" press were so bent on destroying our system, they - and conservatives as well - would soon be out of work. No private enterprise would mean no advertising, then no private press, then a few hand - picked "journalists" would become mere hacks of the state run news agency. Nobody wants that.
becabill
31st Oct 2010
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