Journalism Week at WVU

Well, J-Week 2011 is wrapping up. The theme this year was "Game Changers Under 40." We were lucky to have some really amazing guest speakers including:

• Wendy Harman- Director of Social Media, American Red Cross
• Talia Mark- Manager of Diversity Affairs, NASCAR (A black female..in NASCAR- impressive!)
• David "DigiDave" Cohn- Online Journalist and blogger
• Daniel Gilbert- Pulitzer Prize for Public Service 2010 (Investigative Reporting in Rural Areas)
• Andrew Scritchfield- Cameraman, NBC News

I was able to make it to all of them except Mr. Scritchfield's presentation. Everyone else, however, were very compelling and had great stories of their experiences in the industry.

One presenter that really stuck out was David Cohn's presentation, "Spot.Us: An Experiment in Citizen-Funded Journalism."

From Spot.Us  

We are an open source project to pioneer “community powered reporting.” Through Spot.Us the public can commission and participate with journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics. Contributions are tax deductible and we partner with news organizations to distribute content under appropriate licenses. Donors can also take a survey from our one our sponsors, when available, to support the story of their choice at no cost to them.

Spot.Us - Community Funded Reporting Intro from Digidave on Vimeo.

Cohn's main goal is to keep the information he provides, as well as the allocation of funds, transparent and participatory. He wanted to 'evangelize' the idea that information and money is power, and he wants to keep that within the power of the public. (PS- I think evangelize is his favorite word.)

I am inspired by David Cohn. He stated in his presentation, "Journalism is a process, not a product." I feel right like now there uncertainty on where Journalism is going because of the role of the internet and changing views of the media. But his drive and success encourages me, and I think everyone that saw his presentation, that we can take what we have and use it to our advantage.

Thanks DigiDave!

Who was your favorite speaker?