Manuscript for JCSCW Journalists as Crowdsourcerers Journalists as Crowdsourcerers: Responding to Crisis by Reporting with a Crowd This is a personal archive manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s10606-014-9208-z Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) December 2014, Volume 23, Issue 4-6, pp 445-481 Date: 17 Jul 2014 Dharma Dailey
[email protected] Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering Kate Starbird
[email protected] Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering Box 352315 College of Engineering University of Washington Seattle WA, 98195 Phone: 206 313 2766 Fax: 206 543 8858 Abstract. Widespread adoption of new information communication technologies (ICTs) is disrupting traditional models of news production and distribution. In this rapidly changing media landscape, the role of the journalist is evolving. Our research examines how professional journalists within a rural community impacted by Hurricane Irene successfully negotiated a new role for themselves, transforming their journalistic practice to serve in a new capacity as leaders of an online volunteer community. We describe an emergent organization of media professionals, citizen journalists, online volunteers, and collaborating journalistic institutions that provided real-time event coverage. In this rural context, where communications infrastructure is relatively uneven, this ad hoc effort bridged gaps in ICT infrastructure to unite its audience. In this paper, we introduce a new perspective for characterizing these information- sharing activities: the “human powered mesh network” extends the concept of a mesh network to include human actors in the movement of information. Our analysis shows how journalists played a key role in this network, and facilitated the movement of information to those who needed it.