Citizen Journalism: How to Snoop On Government
Wired.com provides this information:
Sites like Maplight.org, Opensecrets.org and Follow the Money, along with wiki-based political reporting resources like Congresspedia, are increasingly giving ordinary citizens the ability to easily document the flow of special-interest money and how it influences the legislature….
Anyone — from bloggers and students to lobbyists and activists — can use these sites to quickly drill down into the correlation between a politician’s vote and the money he or she received from special interests. The graphs and reports are easily shared or posted on a blog. The sites give access to data by legislator, bill number, bill subject or special interest….
MapLight.org’s open-data initiative epitomizes a technique known as “database journalism,” a new reporting paradigm that allows citizens to act as consumers, custodians and contributors to vast wells of information stored in web databases.
A survey conducted last month by Opensecrets.org found that 45 percent of its users identified themselves as “interested citizens” rather than journalists, activists, educators or political consultants. Further, 59 percent of its users said they use the site for personal — not professional — reasons.
