Top Stories on Haiti

Since last Tuesday, when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti left thousands dead and its capital city in ruins, our community has searched for the most reliable journalism about this tragic event and the humanitarian response that followed. You can see the results so far on our new Haiti topic page.

An abundance of news, analysis and opinion continues to emerge from Haiti, where news organizations around the world have sent correspondents to cover all aspects of the disaster. Observers have taken to commenting on how the devastation could spur a renewed search for solutions to Haiti's generations-old social and economic problems. Others have weighed in on the troubled relationship between Haiti and the United States, some pondering whether U.S. presence will amount to an occupation in coming months.

Top Stories
So far, we've posted 90 stories (60 news, 30 opinion) about the Haiti earthquake, 21 of which have received a NewsTrust rating. Most of these have come from mainstream sources with reporters on the ground in Port-au-Prince or elsewhere in the country.

Here are some of our top rated stories about Haiti this week:

News

• The Tragedy of Haiti - 60 Minutes, CBS News

• Breaking the supply logjam - Time

• 'America must treat carefully in Haiti' - Der Spiegel

• Ghosts of Port-au-Prince - Foreign Policy

• In earthquake-ravaged Haiti, daunting challenges hobble relief efforts - Washington Post

• Still no sign of aid in city center - The Times

• A race against time for aid in Haiti - NPR


Opinion

• Fault is not a sin - Slate

• The underlying tragedy - New York Times

• Suffering - New Yorker


Full listings

- Most trusted stories on Haiti

- Most recent stories on Haiti


Now more than a week since the earthquake struck, survivors still lack food, water and medical care. Logistical problems have overwhelmed relief efforts and many have died from injuries that would have been treatable otherwise. The Haitian government remains all but powerless as international troops arrive to maintain order and deliver aid. As the international community struggles to help speed up recovery, we'll continue to track quality journalism about Haiti. 

Can you help find the best journalism on this tragic event? Please review one of the stories on our Haiti topic page. You can also post new stories for review (we're looking for more independent coverage). For the latest coverage of this topic, check our Haiti smart feed, which lists recent stories recommended by trusted sources on Twitter and around the web.

Support Haiti
Help earthquake victims in Haiti -- consider a donation to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund or some of the great charitable organizations spearheading relief efforts. They need money, not material goods, to help deliver food, water, medical care and other necessities. Check out this list of trusted organizations and consider a donation now.

-- by Derek Hawkins, with Fabrice Florin

NewsTrust 2009 Report

As 2010 gets underway, we'd like to thank our community for supporting NewsTrust in 2009 -- and give you a quick report on what we accomplished together last year.

Our social news network grew steadily in 2009, with a range of new services and partnerships that helped over 1.5 million people get better informed about important public issues.

Here are some highlights of what we've achieved together in 2009. For more info, check our full 2009 Report (PDF).

New Services
In 2009, we launched a new version of our site, which is now much easier to use and more appealing visually, with a simpler layout and a user interface improved greatly by features like the NewsTrust Toolbar. Some of the many new services we also released last year include: News Comparisons and Smart Feeds, as well as community tools like Facebook Connect, Email Notifications and Comments.

Together, we generated over 27,700 story reviews this year, covering a wide range of public issues from the economic crisis to health care reform and the war in Afghanistan. For an overview of the best journalism we found together, check our Best of 2009 page and our Top Sources of 2009.

New Partners
Last year, we partnered with many high-profile news organizations such as the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Link TV, PBS and PolitiFact, engaging their communities in regular news hunts for good journalism on important public issues. These collaborations have helped us promote our service and broaden our community -- and we're discussing more partnerships with other major new providers later this year.

In 2009, we also helped hundreds of students become more discerning news consumers, through our educational outreach in journalism schools at Santa-Clara University, Stanford, Stony Brook and the University of Nevada. We've developed a range of News Literacy and Teacher Guides to support these educational applications of our service in other schools across the nation.

Growing Community
In 2009, we served over 1.5 million visitors, nearly doubling our membership to 15,700 registered members and providing high-quality feeds of news and information to our community, through our website, daily emails, widgets, RSS, Facebook and Twitter. 

We also started monthly Member Awards last year -- and also saw an increase in 'trusted members,' with 383 reviewers demonstrating high levels of activity, expertise, ratings and transparency, earning them a member level of 3 or more.

New Business
We’re very grateful for the generous grants from the MacArthur Foundation and Ashoka, as well as private donations from our community, which have allowed us to keep growing in 2009 (see our full 2009 Report for more info). Many thanks as well to all NewsTrust members who donated during our year-end fundraising drive: you collectively contributed $5,980 in 2009 -- with another $2,675 received in January alone. We really appreciate your generosity and encourage you to keep giving when you can in 2010! (see below)

We also welcomed two new members on our board of directors: long-time advisers Howard Rheingold and David Cohn. Welcome aboard! Your commitment to our cause, combined with your expertise in journalism, new media and education will be invaluable on our board. We would also like to thank departing board member Terry Gamble, whose term expired this year, for her many generous contributions to NewsTrust over the years.

Due to the economic recession, this has been a tough year for fundraising, particularly in the field of journalism, which is facing an unprecedented crisis of its own. To sustain our operations in coming years, we are exploring a range of options such as raising funds from new and existing backers and developing strategic partnerships with compatible organizations. We will keep you posted on our progress towards these goals, and appreciate any support you can provide in the meantime.

Support our Work
NewsTrust isn't a commercial website. It's a nonprofit community service, which is created and funded by people like you. If you find our service useful, consider making a donation to NewsTrust. Your contribution will fund site improvements, new tools, community outreach, news literacy programs and much more.

If you haven't already, please donate today, so we can continue to promote good journalism and bring you quality news and information in 2010. Our continued growth depends on you.

Overall, 2009 has been a great year for NewsTrust. We've accomplished a lot together, and we've been amazed to see thousands of volunteers join our cause to promote good journalism. We're truly grateful for your inspiring support. It's pioneers like you that made this project possible -- and we thank you for your invaluable contributions.

We look forward to our next steps together in 2010!

-- Fabrice Florin and the NewsTrust Team

Member Awards - December '09

We're pleased to announce the Member Award winners for December 2009!

Our monthly award program, which we announced in September, spotlights members of our community who make outstanding contributions to our cause (see our original blog post).

Award Winners
Here are our six award winners for December '09:

• Top Rated Reviewer - Fred Gatlin
Fred received high ratings from other members for his December reviews of stories from the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and more. He's also earned a well-deserved 4.4. member level for his overall contributions to NewsTrust. Fred, thanks your great work over the years!

• Most Thorough Reviewer - George Watson
George, an editor at Wikinews and Wikipedia, regularly answered 20 questions or more in his reviews, and wrote thoughtful notes and comments for each of his reviews. George is also editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper in Grimsby, United Kingdom. Welcome aboard, George! 

• Most Active Reviewer - Glenn LaBauve
Glenn wrote 41 story reviews in December, making him our most active reviewer that month (excluding previous winners). Glenn is from Texas, and brings a wealth of experience to his reviews, as a former war planner, newspaper production manager and accountant. Well done, Glenn!

• Top Rated Post - Subramanya Sastry 
"Climategate" from FactCheck.org received a 4.4 rating from 11 reviews and was featured in our "Best of 2009" stories list. It was posted by web engineer Subbu Sastry, outside the scope of his duties for NewsTrust. Good call, Subbu!

• Trusted Member of the Month - Andre Heinemann
Andre, a medical doctor from Florida, has brought his valuable insights to more than a dozen stories since he joined NewsTrust last month -- and the NewsTrust community has welcomed him with high marks for his well-worded reviews. Thanks, Andre -- and welcome to NewsTrust!

• Editor of the Month - Walter Cox
From time to time, we give special awards to NewsTrust community editors or hosts who make exceptional contributions to our cause. Our first award in this category goes to Walter Cox from California, for his extensive participation in our Climate Change News Hunt, taking great care to insure that views from climate change skeptics were fairly represented. Thanks, Walter -- we really appreciate the thoroughness of your work and your commitment to NewsTrust!

As a small token of our appreciation, we're sending all award winners this NewsTrust mug:

Win a Member Award

If you are a regular NewsTrust reviewer, you too could win one of our monthly awards (see our October and November winners).

Here are some of the ways you can qualify for a member award and increase your own member level:

• Review often
Our top rated reviewers review and post stories regularly and thoroughly. Try to review at least a couple times per week and answer as many questions as you can. To review stories on our site, click 'Review' next to any story title; a good place to start is our home page.

• Focus on the journalism 
Here at NewsTrust, we try to rate stories based on the quality of the journalism, not whether we agree with the views presented in these stories. For tips on how to review on our site, check our review guide. 

• Fill your profile 
Take a moment to update your member profile, so other members can get to know you. The more you share about yourself, the higher your member level, and the more your ratings count. Be sure to add a picture if you can. 


How Member Awards Work

At the end of each month, NewsTrust staff editors tally the results for each award and announce the winners in a blog post and email newsletter. Winners can only win one award per year. If they qualify for two awards in the same month, they're only awarded one prize. 

NewsTrust staff editors and directors cannot not qualify for these awards. We will announce our January winners the week of February 1st.

We'd love to hear what you think of this community program, which we are extending for three months, through March 2010. Drop a comment here on the blog -- or email us directly at editors-at-newstrust-dot-net.

Support our Work
If you find our service useful, consider making a personal donation to NewsTrust. Your contribution will fund site improvements, new tools, community outreach, news literacy programs and much more. To see what we've accomplished together in 2009, check our Progress Report.   

 Please donate today, so we can continue to promote good journalism and bring you quality news and information. Our continued growth depends on you.  

-- by Derek Hawkins, Kaizar Campwala and Fabrice Florin