Global Economy News Hunt Results

What began as an isolated financial meltdown for American banks has become a global economic crisis. Developed economies, from Japan to the European Union are in recession, while high flying developing countries such as China are seeing a precipitous decline in economic growth.

In partnership with Northeastern University professor Dan Kennedy and his students, last week the NewsTrust community focused on finding good journalism on the Global Economy. Together we reviewed 41 stories across 25 separate American and international publications.

NewsTrust reviewers found the best reporting on the global economy came from mainstream publications such as The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor,  and Time. However, independent sources such as LinkTV, Women's eNews, and The New Republic also garnered high ratings for their stories. 

Top stories

Here are some of the highest rated stories:

News

The Breadbasket of South Korea: Madagascar - Time
Banking Regulator Played Advocate Over Enforcer - Washington Post
G20: A New World Order - Global Pulse (LinkTV)
Americans' "Hypocrisy" in Auto Rescue Spurs Me-Too Trading Ire  - Bloomberg
Kenya Farmers Reap Profits Sown by Joined Hands - Women's eNews
Crash and Burn - New Republic
Global deflation risk grows - Christian Science Monitor
Crossing to Mexico for Hospitals and Healthcare - Newsweek
Falling Crop Prices Threaten Boom in Small Farms - Wall Street Journal
The black hole in financial markets - Asia Times

Opinion

The Lame-Duck Economy - New York Times
Bankruptcy may be good for the Detroit Three - Miami Herald
Russia Out of Rehab - Wall Street Journal
The global economy and Detroit - Salon
Bailout to Nowhere - New York Times

Student feedback

For our global economy News Hunt, we were joined by Northeastern professor Dan Kennedy and his journalism students from Reinventing the News, a class that focuses on the role and evolution Web journalism. Throughout the semester, Dan's class covers the gamut of new media and social news sites. NewsTrust became part of the curriculum last week as our editor and host Mike LaBonte gave a demonstration of the site to the class, discussing NewsTrust's mission and walking the group through the review process.

Dan's students, on assignment to review at least three stories on NewsTrust, critiqued 86 stories during the week, bringing in fresh perspectives and giving our News Hunt a helpful boost. They also provided their valuable input and first impressions of the site in a series of posts from their blogs, which they keep as part of the class. Dan also participated in the exercise -- check out his reviews on his personal blog, Media Nation.

The students' reactions were generally positive -- everyone seemed to find the experience worthwhile. One student, Michaela Stanelun, wrote on her blog A Writer Without A Pen that the NewsTrust demonstration was "one of my favorite classes all semester because I really enjoy the site." She added, "[B]esides rating stories, you can also rate other users' reviews on stories. The reviewing process is practically neverending on this web site. NewsTrust is definitely a valuable tool."

Other comments and criticisms ranged from remarks on the large-scale effectiveness of the site to user-friendliness to the fairness of the rating system. Matt Collette, who blogs at Not For Scientists and said he aims to use NewsTrust regularly, said "NewsTrust is forcing me to think critically about news, which - in this age of the Huffington Post and the Drudge Report - remains very important." However, he worried that the review process might be too time consuming for some. "The site takes a big commitment - you can't just stop by for a few minutes," he said, "and that's something that might turn some people off."

Amara Grautski, who writes The Media Dinosaur: Fighting Extinction, had a mixed reaction to the site, saying it seemed like more of a tool for specialists than the public:

I thought the process was an interesting one, having to not only digest the information presented, but also analyze it, and it certainly made me more aware of what I was reading; however, I'm not sure that something of this nature could really be that meaningful. The people who appreciate the ratings are probably journalists themselves, and therefore more instinctively know when they are reading something valuable or something that is 'fluff.'

Candice Novak, a journalism graduate student whose blog is Under-Covered, said part of NewsTrust's appeal is in its effort to be more transparent and personal than other similar sites.

The NewsTrust system is a sophisticated version of Digg or Reddit and relies heavily on readers to fill out review forms — long or short — and disclose information about themselves ... The system is still small, with about 40 percent of its member and editors either journalists themselves or experienced in the media world somehow. But the stories collected are usually great. And the comments on the review act as a guide to the worth of the piece and a sort of community-building that is quite academic — as opposed to the ranking system of Digg or Reddit where anything with a scandalous title usually reaches the top of the rankings fairly quickly.

By and large, the students said they appreciated the dialogue that NewsTrust has attempted to create between news organizations and their readers, and remarked on the site's ability to surface and rate stories they wouldn't have otherwise seen. We believe this reflects a changing readership that views itself as a constituent of the news, rather than its audience or subject, and speaks to the mission of NewsTrust.

Firuzeh Shokooh-Valle of The Others/Invisible Lives cast NewsTrust as a player in the breakdown of the "traditional media's monologue" and said it democratizes journalism by integrating others voices and making reporters accountable to who they really owe themselves to: the readers." Julie Balise called NewsTrust "both interactive and intuitive" and "one of journalism’s most innovative checks," on her blog lollipops & crisps. And in what we hope is testament to NewsTrust's draw for more than just news junkies, Drew Bonifant, a sports blogger who writes pats down pat, said, "The site is very effective at bringing well-written and researched articles to the forefront of hot-topic political issues, and it's easy to leave NewsTrust having read articles that provide valuable insight and, in some cases, opinion and analysis."

(NewsTrust editor and host Mike LaBonte, with Northeastern University journalism students.)

For more remarks from the students of Reinventing the News, visit the Reinventing the News class blog, or check out these student blogs:

Ami's Politics - Ami Van Wygerden
College Sports Coverage - Erika Carruba
Crazy Sunshine - Mark Rizzo
Blog Against the Machine: Boston - Marc Larocque
Things an Elephant Should Never Forget - Liz Stitt
Jess Volpe - Jess Volpe
Another Pixelated Window - Jared Molton
The Magraker - Bobby Feingold
Belen Bogado - Belen Bogado
AL's Blog - Adrianne Loggins
Miller's Musings - Chaz Miller

Thanks to our partners
A big thank you to Northeastern journalism professor Dan Kennedy for inviting his students to join our News Hunt -- and to the students for sharing their experience with us! We're very grateful to Dan (who is a NewsTrust editor and founding member) for experimenting with educational applications of NewsTrust in his class -- and bringing in new perspectives from his students. 

And special kudos go to NewsTrust editor and veteran reviewer Mike LaBonte for taking the time to give a presentation about NewsTrust to Dan's class at Northeastern last week. This is Mike's second public presentation for us in a month (the first one was at the New England Library Association conference) and  it's a great feeling to have him represent our community so well. 

Last but not least, many thanks to all NewsTrust reviewers who participated in this fascinating experiment.

Join our News Hunt on Poverty
We're looking for quality journalism about people who live at the bottom of
the economic ladder, with as focus on solutions to help them cope with
the financial crisis and rising unemployment. Please review our
recommended stories -- and submit new stories -- in our special section
on Poverty.

By Kaizar Campwala, Derek Hawkins and Fabrice Florin

Derek Hawkins, Assistant Editor at NewsTrust, graduated in May, 2008, from Northeastern University, where he studied under professor Dan Kennedy. His introduction to NewsTrust.net came in a presentation on the site in Dan's Reinventing the News class in spring 2008. After three months as an active reviewer, Derek applied for an editorial opening on the NewsTrust team and was hired in June.

Top stories on the Obama Administration

As president-elect Barack Obama took the first steps toward the transition into the White House, we turned our attention to the incoming Obama Administration. Obama's staff and transition team took shape last week, with some appointments drawing harsh criticism from the Republican opposition in Congress. The surge in post-election analysis gave way to closer examination of Obama's inside circles and speculation about his cabinet picks. Our community sought out some excellent journalism on this topic, which has remained at the forefront of media coverage, now two weeks after the 2008 election. Here are some of the top-rated stories we found:

News

The Joshua Generation
New Yorker (Special Report)

In transition, tangle of ties to lobbying
New York Times (News Report)

The New Liberal Order
Time (News Analysis)

Vast Obama network becomes a political footbal
Los Angeles Times (Special Report)

Local newspapers cover rising number of racist anti-Obama actions in small towns
Editor & Publisher (News Analysis)

Bush sets free trade trap for Obama
Salon (News Analysis)

Opinion

Bailout to nowhere
New York Times (Opinion)

Picking Obama's team: Balancing smart retreads with fresh faces
Bloomberg (Opinion)

A hard-headed strategy of inclusion
National Journal (Opinion)

Obama's chance to end the fantasy that is Star Wars
The Independent (Opinion)

The corn isn't green
Slate (Opinion)

This week: Global Economy with Northeastern
Our featured topic this week is the global economy. Economic downturn in the United States has begun to take its toll on goods prices, labor, trade, currencies, politics and livelihoods in the rest of the world. Both domestic and international media have picked up on the ripple effect the financial crisis and other events have had on major economies, as well as developing countries. We're partnering with journalism professor and NewsTrust advisor Dan Kennedy and his students from Northeastern University to find the best news and opinion on this topic.

Please join us in seeking out great journalism on the global economy by visiting our Global Economy topic page and reviewing unrated stories.

Election News Hunt results

The historic U.S. presidential election is finally over, and the longest campaign season on record brought with it unprecedented levels of media attention and news coverage. In the last two weeks, our community joined forces in a News Hunt for good journalism on the 2008 Presidential Election, from October 27 through November 9, 2008.

Together, we reviewed some of the best journalism from the final days of the campaigns and the post-election news, analysis and opinion that followed. Led by our tireless hosts Chris Finnie and Mike LaBonte, we rated 166 stories from 76 publications across the political spectrum. Our News Hunt results suggest that our community exercised sound judgment in separating reality from rhetoric and fact from opinion in this landmark election.

Top Stories

Here's a selection of our top rated stories:

News

The Transformation
New York Times (News Analysis)

Bush's legal legacy to give Obama tough choices
McClatchy (News Analysis)

U.S. hailed again as 'country of dreams'
Washington Post (Special Report)

As economic crisis peaked, tide turned against McCain
Wall Street Journal (News Analysis)

Ten reasons why you should ignore exit polls
FiveThirtyEight (Special Report)

What McCain and Obama didn’t talk about
Foreign Policy (News Analysis)

Final presidential estimate: Obama 55%, McCain 44%
Gallup (Poll)

A sea change for politics as we know it
New York Times (News Analysis)

The 2008 presidential campaign has been like no other
Los Angeles Times (News Analysis)

Chaos looms over Pennsylvania vote
American News Project (News Report)

McCain advisor says voter fraud is a "perception" that "plants seeds of doubt
ProPublica (Investigative Report)

McCain, first, second, and always
New Republic (Investigative Report)

Calling the race to 270
Economist (News Analysis)

Voting equipment changes could get messy on Nov. 4
USA Today (News Report)

The color of news: How different media have covered the general election
Journalism.org (News Analysis)

Why McCain is getting hosed in the press
The Politico (News Analysis)

Opinion

The Test
The New Yorker (Opinion)

It's Time
Economist (Editorial)

An 'idiot wind'
Washington Post (Editorial)

What a long, strange trip it’s been
In These Times (Opinion)

The stakes are high for Barack Obama, but so too are the opportunities
The Guardian (Editorial)

The Republican Rump
New York Times (Opinion)

Republicans fear the loss of their only weapon left: the filibuster
The Independent (Opinion)

Why Barack Obama is winning
Time (Opinion)

Sarah Palin's war on science
Slate (Opinion)

I'm voting for Barack Obama
The American Conservative (Opinion)

For more, check out the full listing of stories from our Presidential Election news hunt, by rating or by date.

News Hunt Findings

In total, we submitted 434 stories, of which 166 were rated with 3 or more reviews. From these rated stories, 117 stories came from mainstream sources, while 49 came from independent sources. This was significantly higher than the number of independent stories rated during previous news hunts -- a jump we attribute to the high profile of this historic election.

The New York Times and the Washington Post led the way by far in the number of stories we reviewed -- 17 from the Times and 15 from the Post. Nearly one in five stories we reviewed came from these publications. The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times were next, posting eight, eight and seven story reviews respectively.

While many of the stories we reviewed in the past two weeks were either news reports or opinions (each category representing 28% of total rated stories), a larger portion than usual were news analysis (19% of total rated stories). As the election entered its final stages -- and Barack Obama's election and transition choices followed -- new information about the candidates gave way to more number crunching, prediction and overview of the election cycle.

Investigative reports posted a remarkable 3.9 average rating, followed by polls, which averaged 3.8. Next were special reports and editorials, which averaged 3.7, followed by news analysis and straight news reports, averaging 3.6. Notably lower were opinion pieces, with a 3.4 average rating. This suggests that our community preferred substantive stories with ample factual evidence to partisan points of view.

Sources from a wide range of political viewpoints were represented in this News Hunt. The vast majority of our news stories came from publications we identified as having center or neutral viewpoint. Thirty-four sources from the center -- close to half of the total number of sources whose stories we reviewed in this News Hunt -- posted news stories we reviewed. Ten sources we identified as liberal or left posted news stories, while that number was two for right or conservative sources. We believe this shows that our community favors a more neutral tone in news coverage.

When it came to opinion, most political viewpoints were fairly represented. We reviewed opinion pieces from nine sources on the right, nine on the left, and 18 from the center. (This seems on par with a recent election poll by the Associated Press, which found that 22 percent of Americans described themselves as liberal, 44 percent as moderate and 34 percent as conservative -- see this Washington Post article.)

Sources with a neutral viewpoint in their news coverage, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC News and the Wall Street Journal received average story ratings identical to many center-left and left sources, including Salon, Mother Jones, the Guardian and the Politico, generally between 3.5 and 3.7. Sources from the center-right and right, in contrast, were rated lower on average -- Pajamas Media, Town Hall and the Weekly Standard, for example, all received average ratings of less than 3.2. This could be attributed to a leftward tilt in the NewsTrust community at this time, which we aim to correct in coming months by inviting more participation from reviewers with viewpoints on the right and center. Still, many center sources remained among our most trusted -- including the Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, Gallup, Congressional Quarterly and McClatchy, all above 3.7.

Mainstream and independent media paid particular attention to a handful of subtopics during our two-week News Hunt, reflected in many of our top stories.

Stories on voter purging, long lines, machine malfunction, voter fraud and other concerns about the election process surfaced early on. In 'Chaos looms over Pennsylvania vote,' the independent American News Project confronted public officials over evidence that Philadelphia voters would be scrubbed from voter rosters, and USA Today provided voters with a list of potential setbacks in 'Voting equipment changes could get messy on Nov. 4'. Such problems were reported on election day, but fears of widespread vote-flipping and equipment failure were absent from post-election coverage.

Although much of what we reviewed went beyond the horserace coverage of the election, our community identified several great poll and prediction stories and rated them highly. These included Gallup's 'Final presidential estimate': Obama 55%, McCain 44%' and 'Ten reasons why you should ignore exit polls' by the blog FiveThirtyEight.

Retrospectives on the election made the front pages of most national publications in the week leading up to the election. We identified some of the best as Bill Ayers' 'What a long, strange trip it’s been', the New York Times' 'A sea change for politics as we know it,' and the Los Angeles Times' 'The 2008 presidential campaign has been like no other'.

Some endorsements of Barack Obama by many high-profile and unlikely conservative authors, public figures and publications made it into our top-rated opinion selection. The Economist, a noted fiscally conservative British news magazine, advocated a vote for Obama in an even handed editorial. "The Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence," it read. "But we acknowledge it is a gamble ... Yet it is one America should take, given the steep road ahead." In another highly-rated piece, former Reagan advisor and neoconservative author Francis Fukuyama said: "While John McCain is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale."

Post-election coverage included an array of analysis and opinion that ranged from insight into why John McCain lost key Republican strongholds to global reactions about Obama's victory. Some of the highest rated stories came from this category, and included: 'As economic crisis peaked, tide turned against McCain,' from the Wall Street Journal; 'Bush’s legal legacy to give Obama tough choices,' from McClatchy; and 'The Transformation,' from the New York Times.

This Week: The Obama Administration News Hunt

Our topic this week is the Obama Administration. Only days after his historic election, all eyes are on the President-elect's cabinet and staff appointments, as well as his transition plans. Please help find in-depth news about Obama's first decisions -- and insightful opinions about what these choices mean for the U.S. and the world -- in our new Obama Administration section.



NewsTrust on Washington Post

We're pleased to announce that WashingtonPost.com just added NewsTrust Buttons throughout its site! Be sure to use this valuable new tool, which you can do on any of their articles, such as this column by Dan Froomkin. Simply click on their Save/Share toolbox, then click on the NT link to submit a story on NewsTrust. We're very grateful to be included on the prestigious Washington Post site and really appreciate their gracious support of our cause. If you have a news-related website, we encourage you to add our buttons and widgets to your site as well.

Check out Spot.Us
Be sure to visit Spot.Us, a new site that invites readers to pay for local news stories they want to read. This promising initiative in “community funded reporting” is led by our colleague David Cohn, former Contributing Editor at NewsTrust. The Spot.Us site just launched this week, and focuses initially on San Francisco Bay Area news, thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation. Kudos from all of us at NewsTrust for launching this innovative way to support local journalism!

http://spot.us/

by Derek Hawkins, with Kaizar Campwala and Fabrice Florin

NewsTrust needs your vote

In the coming months we're looking at a couple exciting opportunities for NewsTrust -- and would be grateful for your help to make them happen.

We Media Awards, Knight News Challenge
We're pleased to announce that NewsTrust has been selected as a finalist for the 2009 We Media Game Changers Awards, which funds and promotes organizations seeking to create social change through media.

In addition to being judged by a panel of experts, a Community Choice Award will be given to the organization that receives the highest user rating. The winner will be invited to give a keynote presentation at the We Media Global Forum in Miami, which takes place in February.

Please take a moment to rate NewsTrust for the We Media Community Choice Award:
http://gamechangers.wemedia.com/2008/10/newstrust/

NewsTrust has also submitted three grant applications to the Knight Foundation's News Challenge, an annual contest that awards funding for community-focused innovation in media. We're seeking funding for three new applications to extend the NewsTrust service:

* Local NewsTrust Sites
NewsTrust will provide regional news websites aggregating quality journalism in two pilot locations: the San Francisco Bay Area and Miami. We will partner with local newspapers and universities in each area, extending our innovative social news network to identify and promote the best news coverage in their communities.
http://tinyurl.com/6qovue

* Community FactCheck
Community FactCheck will enable citizens and journalists to collectively fact check statements made by local newsmakers in their communities. It will engage members of the public to join forces with professionals to separate fact from fiction through in-depth research, in partnership with local newspapers and universities, using a new set of online tools under development by NewsTrust, a nonprofit social news service.
http://tinyurl.com/59ff4j

* Local NewsQuiz
Local News Quiz is a fun online game that will challenge you to ‘Test your News IQ’ by answering trivia questions about local news events, people, places and public issues. As an added twist, Local News Quiz will be user-generated. It will engage citizens and journalists to collectively create their own fun and informative news quizzes about public life in their communities.
http://tinyurl.com/5mbc2f

Please review these projects, then sign up and rate them on the News Challenge site. We really appreciate your support as we continue to expand and improve our service. Thank you for taking the time to spread the word!

This week: The Presidential Election -- Healing the Divide
The victory for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party marks a major shift in American politics, and a significant moment in its racial history. Please help find insightful news and opinion about the meaning of Tuesday's election for Washington, everyday Americans, and the world.

We're particularly interested in coverage of new ways to find common ground between Republicans and Democrats. How can both parties bridge their deep ideological divisions to address the many challenges facing America? Please review our recommended stories -- and submit new stories -- on our Presidential Election topic page.

Here's a quick sampling of what we've found so far:

News

As economic crisis peaked, tide turned against McCain
Wall Street Journal (News Analysis)

Internal battles divided McCain and Palin camps
New York Times (News Analysis)

U.S. hailed again as 'country of dreams'
Washington Post (Special Report)

A sea change for politics as we know it
New York Times (News Analysis)

Jubilation greets Barack Obama's presidential victory
Guardian (News Report)

Opinion

The treatment of Bush has been a disgrace
Wall Street Journal (Editorial)

The Southern Strategy Comes of Age
Harper's (Opinion)

McCain is on the verge of defeat that marks the end of the Republican era
Guardian (Opinion)

Obama wins: Why all Americans have a reason to celebrate
Huffington Post (Opinion)

-- Derek Hawkins