Join the Experiment: Crowd-Funded Crime Reporting

by Matt Kelley · 2009-10-01 12:04:00 UTC
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We're launching an exciting new joint project here on the change.org criminal justice blog, and we need your help. Together with spot.us, the crowd-funded journalism website, San Francisco's KALW public radio and the Harnisch Foundation, we're seeking to dig a bit deeper into the day-to-day grind of courts, crimes and jails to find out how this system impacts people's lives and how it can be improved.

Here's how it will work: we help KALW raise $1,000 to pay for the first round of coverage on spot.us (I wrote previously about why I'm a believer that crowd-funded reporting through platforms like spot.us can raise the level of criminal justice reporting around the world). The Harnisch Foundation has agreed to match that first $1,000. With this money, KALW can produce two stories, and during the process the reporters will post exclusive audio and video updates here at change.org.

But to make it happen, we need you to donate a few dollars. If you agree with me that we can't afford to lose this kind of reporting, please give $20 today to help make this experiment a reality.

KALW has pitched two stories as part of this project, but once it gets rolling, the sky is the limit. In the first story, a reporter will spend two weeks in the Oakland courts, bringing us the nitty gritty from a variety of perspectives - something that isn't normally possible for the mainstream media to do. The second story will focus on parolees and reentry into the community.

In this video at spot.us, KALW News Director Holly Kernan says: "We want to drill down into the criminal justice system, particularly in the places you don't normally see. Now, media generally are reactive, so if there's a big sensational case, they'll follow that case. But what we want to do is exactly the opposite, present these stories that might sound like a bureaucratic tale on the outside but when you really go inside, this is about people's lives, this is about life and death."

Sound good? Please donate $20 today to help make this project happen. I just did. We need just $750 more to get these stories started!

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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