Wisdom of Crowds, Citizen Journalism und US-Wahl 2008

Arianna Huffington verkündet in der Huffington-Post ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt mit der Citizen Journalism-Plattform NewAssignment.Net zur US-Wahl 2008: New HuffPost Project: The Wisdom of the Crowd Hits the ’08 Campaign Trail. Ziel ist, jedem US-Präsidentschaftskandidaten ein eigenes Blog zu widmen, wo viele Menschen zusammen jeweils mitschreiben können. Damit soll ausprobiert werden, ob das mit den „Wisdom of Crowds“ übertragbar ist.

Arianna Huffington schreibt dazu:

In addition, our strength-in-numbers approach will make it possible for our contributors to stake out specialized beats, taking advantage of their specific expertise and/or connections. For instance, we might have a former speechwriter reviewing all of Barack Obama’s speeches, an award-winning TV commercial director analyzing Hillary Clinton’s ads, a netroots activist reporting on John Edwards‘ online outreach efforts, or an experienced political fundraiser following John McCain’s campaign donors.

The end result will be more sources of information, more eyes and ears focused on a wider variety of subjects, more outside-the-mainstream voices given a platform. All in all, a fresh and innovative way of covering the road to the White House.

Jay Rosen (u.a. NewAssignment.net) schreibt dazu: Participate in Politics by Covering the Campaign.

Our idea is not complicated: it’s campaign reporting by a great many more people than would ever fit on the bus that the boys (and girls) of the press have famously gotten on and off every four years, as they try to cover the race for president.

So instead of one well-placed reporter trailing John Edwards wherever he goes (which is one way of doing it) some 40 or 50 differently-placed people tracking different parts of the Edwards campaign, all with peculiar beats and personal blogs linked together by virtue of having a common editor and a page through which the best and most original stuff filters out to the greater readership of the Web, especially via the Huffington Post.

Klingt interessant. Ich bin mal gespannt, wie sich die einzelnen Blogs von der Vielzahl an interessanten Blogs unterscheidet, die auch schon über die US-Wahl berichten. Und wie die Spannungsverhältnisse zwischen den Bloggern selbst ablaufen werden. Immerhin kann man davon ausgehen, dass sowohl Fans als auch Gegener von Kandidaten in denselben Blogs mitschreiben wollen und werden.