Spot.us: Sponsored survey on objectivity in journalism

August 03, 2010

Spot.us: Sponsored survey on objectivity in journalism

Do you think objectivity is crucial to journalism? Or is transparency the new objectivity? The journalism crowdfunding service Spot.us has launched another sponsored survey exploring ideas and attitudes about objectivity in journalism.

Currently, Clay Shirky (author of Cognitive Surplus and other books about the net) is sponsoring this survey. Questions include: “Is objectivity in journalism even possible?” And: “Is striving for objectivity in journalism a good thing?”...

In these Spot.us surveys, an organization or brand donates $5 to a story pitch designated by each Spot.us user who takes a 1-minute survey.

To take this survey, select an open Spot.us story pitch you’d like to fund. Then click “Earn Credits” at the top of the right-hand sidebar. You’ll be asked to register or log in to Spot.us, and then you can take the survey.

According to Spot.us founder David Cohn, “Shirky was given the opportunity to direct funds from a foundation to the nonprofit of his choice. We are truly humbled that he chose Spot.Us. The answers to this survey will be made public but anonymous.”

These sponsored surveys (which Cohn calls community-focused sponsorships) are a unique business-model experiment to help organizations connect with the public about issues—while financially supporting journalism—in a way that’s quite different from traditional advertising or marketing.

Cohn will be developing this model further in his upcoming Reynolds Journalism Institute fellowship. This concept also was deemed a “notable entry” in this year’s Knight-Batten awards.

ALSO: Spot.us goes national. In his July 27 PBS Mediashift post, Cohn explained the site’s recent shift from a regional to a national focus.

“It makes little sense for me to tell a good pitch from Illinois or Texas that they can’t put their pitch up until we find a handful of other pitches in their region,” wrote Cohn. “So, as of last week, the subdomains at Spot.Us have been removed. Trying to convince people in a specific region to use the site—while stopping others from using it because they aren’t in the right region—is not the best use of our time or energy.”

Spot.us was launched with a 2008 Knight News Challenge grant.