Knight Foundation Media Innovation Contest Announces 2011 Winners
Knight News Challenge winners receive $4.7 million, including $1 million in support from Google; winners include traditional news organizations and Internet entrepreneurs, projects focused on government transparency, mobile and more
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sixteen ideas that push the future of news and information will receive $4.7 million in funding as winners of the Knight News Challenge, an international media innovation contest funding digital news experiments that inform and engage communities.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the winners today at the MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference.
The ideas come from leading Internet entrepreneurs including Tim Hwang and Jesse James Garrett, and top legacy newsrooms like the Associated Press and Chicago Tribune, and originate in North Carolina, Chile and the U.K. Together, they employ a range of techniques for delivering news and information in the digital age. They include experiments to:
- Help newsrooms organize and visualize large data sets so that they can find relationships and stories they might not have imagined (with projects from the AP and the Chicago Tribune.)
- Create a mobile platform that will enable residents of a city in India to learn when water is available (an unpredictable event that has residents waiting hours).
- Build tools that help to verify and display breaking news – with projects from Ushahidi and premier Web design firm Adaptive Path.
- Leverage efforts to improve the use of government data in the U.S. - with projects from the Open Knowledge Foundation, ScraperWiki, the University of North Carolina and The Miller Center Foundation at the University of Virginia.
A full list is available at http://www.newschallenge.org.
“Through the News Challenge, Knight Foundation fosters innovators that push the intersection of journalism and technology,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of Knight Foundation. “From individuals to institutions, the contest has generated or helped promote a wide variety of experiments and initiatives, including popular new tools like DocumentCloud and Ushahidi. Media innovators like David Cohn of Spot.Us or ‘journalist hackers’ like Brian Boyer are exactly the kinds of people we expected to participate. It has also pleased us very much to welcome the up-front engagement in the contest of great news organizations like the Associated Press and Chicago Tribune," added Ibargüen.
This year, Google has supported innovation in journalism through Knight Foundation with a contribution of $1 million to the News Challenge prize funds. The Internet company was not involved in the winner selection process.
“Quality journalism remains a crucial ingredient of democracy,” said Jim Gerber, director of strategic partnerships, at Google. “As the Internet continues to extend how we communicate, gather information, and publish, innovations in news are emerging from organizations of all sizes around the world. We applaud the initiatives recognized today in the Knight News Challenge and hope they inspire even greater innovation."
Over the Challenge’s five years, Knight Foundation has reviewed more than 12,000 applications and funded 76 projects for $27 million. For the first time this year, the Knight News Challenge focused on entries four categories: Mobile, Authenticity, Sustainability and Community. Two categories – mobile and community – received the most interest.
Past projects have been adopted by large media organizations and are having an impact. DocumentCloud, which helps journalists analyze, annotate and publish original source documents, is being used by more than 200 newsrooms nationwide. The site, which recently merged with Investigative Reporters and Editors, is again a 2011 winner for a project that will allow the public to comment on source documents in an effort to crowdsource news and information.
Meanwhile, hNews, a project by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and the Media Standards Trust, is also being used by more than 200 newsrooms including the Associated Press. It allows readers to see the source of information in online articles.
The Knight News Challenge is part of Knight Foundation’s $100 million Media Innovation Initiative, designed to find digital ways to effectively inform communities so they may better function in a democracy. The initiative includes projects to deliver news and information on digital platforms, explore national media reform, increase broadband access and transform journalism education, among others.
“A well-informed citizenry is essential to a functioning democracy. That makes it a natural for investment by philanthropy,” Ibargüen said. “We’re proud of our partnerships, which include Google for the Knight News Challenge, community foundations all over the United States to support community information projects in the Community Information Challenge, and with great national foundations like Carnegie for the transformation of journalism education and leadership for the digital age.”
For more information about the contest and videos of the winners visit www.newschallenge.org.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
- Note: hi-res photos of the winners are available at: http://www.kflinks.com/knc11-photos
- for winners’ contact information, contact lynch@knightfoundation.org
CONTACT:
Knight Foundation
Marc Fest, 305-908-2677
Vice President / Communications
fest@knightfoundation.org
KEYWORDS: United States Brazil Asia Pacific North America South America Massachusetts
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Technology Internet Mobile/Wireless Blogging Social Media Philanthropy Communications Publishing Foundation
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