Gillmor, Rosen Get Sunlight Foundation Grants
The Sunlight Foundation is providing grants to both Jay Rosen’s NewAssignment.net ($10,000) and Dan Gillmor’s Center for Citizen Media($25,000). Ellen S. Miller, co-founder and Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, writes:
… Jay’s project is on the cusp of making some very big waves. As I said to him, if this works (and I think it will), the Washington game will never be the same again. The oh-so-cozy relationship between lawmakers and the old media will be replaced by something that is much more powerful – fearless citizens. I am certain that the establishment media will be challenged – and that’s a very good thing – by this experiment’s anticipated successes and perhaps they will recall that their mission to “afflict the comfortable.” And one further thought: what Rosen is trying to do with NewAssignment.Net is something that media reform activists should start paying attention to since it can offer a way around the mainstream media’s failure.
Dan Gillmor’s work that we are supporting is a beta test of how future congressional elections might be covered by a combination of citizen and professional journalists. His Center for Citizen Media will oversee the creation of a website that hopes to glean everything that can possibly be reported on a Congressional election, with an emphasis on drawing on the talents and ideas of local citizen reporters. Imagine citizens taking video cameras to fundraising events, or house meetings, or conversations with senior citizens and then posting them all on a single website. Imagine combining that with first-person reports, links to articles, data bases on campaign financing, video archives of past statements, etc. etc. It’s going to be a rush to get this going in one district this fall (it will happen in CA-11) but Dan has marshaled students in a class he’s teaching and some other terrific talent too that will pump it up fast.
