[MUSIC] Now what is crowdsourcing? The term gets thrown out a lot. And let me give you my definition of it, because I think it matters what the definition is depending on what you're doing. So when you're a journalist, as you've already learned, we need to use as many sources as possible in order to have strong reporting. The stronger your reporting, the stronger your news report. So knowing where you get your news report is going to matter as much as where the information of the sources come from. So why would you want to use a crowd? Simply put, the more people you can get into your report, from information, from getting sources, the more you can augment your understanding of the information. So crowdsourcing is exactly that. Using the crowd, namely the outside world around you of people, information, to help you as sources for your reporting. So what do I do? Where do I go? I understand, it's a very wide world around us. But the world around you can get much smaller if you use crowdsourcing. But before you ask the world for help, you need to know what you need from them. So if you're reporting on something, do I need to speak to eyewitnesses that saw something happen, like an accident or a fire? Do I need to use documents like text documents or meeting minutes from a city council? Do I need video or photos? Or do I need all of it? Knowing how to ask for what you need, is going to tell you who you need to go to. So here's an example of the news article that's done everyday with crowdsourcing. Here's a simple example. You've been asked to report about a new public park, designed for children and families. I'm sure you have one of those in your town. But this is a new park, these being proposed for a certain area of the town that's right now woods. You know the cost details about the park from the town government. But you're not sure how the public feels about it. Do they want the park? Is this even a good idea? The park's super pretty. In the drawings, anyway. So let's think through the questions we need to ask our sources. Who do we need to talk to? Why do we need a different mix of people? Where are we going to find these people? Every journalist has a slight moment of panic trying to figure out what to do, but guess what? We all get through it. So here's some answers to help find your audience. We need to find families who might want to use the park, right? Because that's who the park is being made for. We need to find the people that live near the area where the park is going to go. Maybe they're happy about having a park. Maybe they're not happy about having more people come to where they live because maybe it was private before. They get a voice too. And maybe we need to speak to people that are into environmental conservation. Maybe they didn't want the land disturb. Because, maybe the park will bring in more people which can bring more thrash, which could bring the trampling of the woods around it. These are all people that needs to be brought to the conversation. Which is why we need to use basic crowdsourcing. We know what we need to do to speak to people. We've identified our groups, but where do we find them? What if we don't know who these people are and where they live yet? You actually do. There's nearby parks probably around you where families go to play. Go talk to them, see if they like the park, see if it works, see if the park that they're proposing is similar to the one they have already. Go to the actual neighborhood where this new park is supposed to be and look for people to talk to. Maybe they're out walking, maybe they're exercising, maybe they're just playing with their kids. Go also, do an internet search for environmental groups, family groups, anyone in the neighborhood that might have a stake in what happens in this park. Coffee shops, grocery stores, neighborhoods, any place where people gather in the area, those are places where you can go up to people and say, hey, have you heard about this new proposed park? What do you think? And also make sure, you might have to do some old fashioned legwork, walking up and down the area, knocking on some doors. Hey, I'm a reporter. Can you talk to me about the new park? All this is crowdsourcing. It's getting out and doing something, going to where the people are. The bottom line is ask for help. When you find a source ask them, who else do you think I should be interviewing for this news report? Ask them who they think would be a good fit for your article because they might know things that you don't. Never assume that you know everything. That way you're using the basic, but the super real power of crowdsourcing for your story. And you're getting more opinions, more information, and it's making the final outcome all the better. So why would we want to do this? Simply put, using more facts, using more sources gets us a better report in the end. Understand that crowdsourcing is super important. There's different ways of doing it. Going out physically and talking to people is a huge way. But also, there's another way you can do it sitting behind your computer, and that's through social media. We'll talk about that in another lesson. But for now, know strong news reports come from strong crowdsourcing. [MUSIC]
