Assignment Zero

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Revision as of 14:42, 25 April 2007 by imported>Robert W King (→‎Theory)
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Assignment Zero (AZ) is an experiment in crowd-sourced journalism, allowing collaboration between amateur and professional journalists to collectively produce a piece of work that describes correlations between crowd-sourced techniques and a popular movement.

Assignment Zero Front Page

Staff

The following are responsible for the execution of AZ:

  • David Cohn - David Cohn is the associate editor for Assignment Zero. He is currently working toward a master's degree in Journalism at Columbia Univerity, and holds a degree in Philosophy from University of California at Berkeley.[1][2] David has also contributed articles to Seed Magazine. [3]
  • Steve Fox - Steve Fox is the regional coordinator for the Online News Association(ONA) in the Midatlantic Region, based in Washington, D.C.[4] Up until late 2006, Steve was also the Politics Editor at Washingtonpost.com.[5] He is also an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland's School of Journalism.[6][7]
  • Amanda Michael - Amanda Michael was the Communications Director for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School from March 2004 to November 2006[8].
  • Jay Rosen - Jay Rosen is the Executive Editor of Assignment Zero. Rosen has been a member of the Journalism faculty at New York University(NYU) since 1986. He has taught courses in media criticism, cultural journalism, press ethics, and other subjects related to journalism.[9]
  • Lauren Sandler - Lauren Sandler was also a former producer and reporter at National Public Radio.[10] In 2000, Lauren graduated from New York University's Cultural Reporting and Criticism program to launch a freelance career in journalism.[11][12]

Theory

The goal of Assignment Zero is to create a publishable, edited story that is an amalgamation of input from various "real" sources. In Jeff Howe's "Guide to Crowdsourcing" on the AZ Site[13], the method of contribution is broken down into three categories:

  • Tapping the Collective Brain
  • The Crowd Creates
  • The Crowd Filters

Collectively, these three attempt to illustrate a concept that many people("Crowds"), by virtue of their size and diversity, have the capability to contribute, create, and peer-review much of the content that is submitted to the project.

Wikipedia and Citizendium, both offering the capability for many people to contribute content for the masses, follow this basic model. The idea behind AZ is to implement these concepts with an amount of journalistic oversight, coupled with a recommended model of ethics[14].

Support

AZ is a collaborative experiment between Wired Magazine, NewAssignment.net and other participants.

References

  1. About Page, David Cohn, Journalist. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  2. LinkedIn: David Cohn, LinkedIn public profile. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  3. Author: David Cohn, Latest ArticlesSeed: Author: David Cohn. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  4. ONA News: ONA Regional coordinators, ONA Regional Coordinators. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  5. Fox, Steve, washingtonpost.com -- Revisiting Watergate - Deep Throat, Woodward, Bernstein. 2006, The Washington Post Company. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  6. Steve Fox - NewAssignmet.net (profile). Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  7. Nenf/steve-fox - MediaGiraffe. Retrieved on 2005-04-25.
  8. Archived Bio for Amanda Michael, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Profile: Amanda Michael. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  9. Faculty: Jay Rosen, Journalism at NYU - Faculty. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  10. All Things Considered, November 2, 1998, NPR: Young Voters. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  11. Faculty: Lauren Sandler, Journalism at NYU - Faculty. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  12. Righteous, laurensandler.com, About the Author. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  13. Howe, Jeff. A Guide to Crowdsourcing. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  14. Fox, Steve. An Ethics Primer. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.

External Links