Branden A King
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read

Crowdsourcing and More

I think crowdsourcing is a great way to get facts and eyewitness accounts when you weren’t able to witness something yourself. You still have to verify the information of course,but it paints a better picture for a journalist to know what they are looking for. Essentially Anyone is able to be a journalist with today’s tools. There are cameras and recording capabilities on your phone. Also someone is a few taps away from posting something on social media. I think crowdsourcing is also helpful at times that we can’t get footage or audio that someone there did.

Doxing can be really bad because it has information that isn’t properly attributed and you don’t have permission to publish. If it was previously agreed upon that it is not to be attributed to a person based on security and safety,then its ok not to identify who it was from. If you publish off the record information without permission then that isn’t ok. If the person knows you are a journalist and don’t state something is off the record prior to the interview then whatever they say can be published.

The best way to handle breaking news is to live tweet or Facebook live what you are observing,but not stating anything as fact unless you are completely sure that’s what is happening. It’s easy to try to be first,but better to be more accurate.

Branden A King

Journalist for Northern Vermont University's News 7

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