NewsTrust - Blog Archive

The community responds: Our online survey report

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by NewsTrust Baltimore community manager Gin Ferrara and originally published on our Baltimore blog on June 29, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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In April and May 2011, NewsTrust Baltimore staff invited members, partners and supporters to take a short online survey about our service. We asked them to share their perspectives on the usefulness and impact of our site and to make suggestions for improvements and new features. Here are our findings about this survey.

Overview

We collected both quantitative and qualitative data in this brief survey, using tools from the website Survey Monkey. Individuals were asked a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. There were 12 questions total, which could be completed in about 5 to 10 minutes, on average. Questions addressed user satisfaction with the site, frequency of use, areas of strength and weakness, and potential new features. Links to the survey were distributed to all members of NewsTrust Baltimore via email, and emails were also sent to community partners. Public links to the survey were posted on social media, our blog and on the homepage of the site. 

The online survey took place from April 22 through May 6, 2011. In total, 192 people began the survey, and 135 completed it. A smaller, normalized sample of 87 respondents was used for analysis purposes, to feature more diverse responses; this community sample was intended to be more representative of our community, with fewer college student responses. It also excluded NewsTrust staff responses, as well as duplicate or incomplete responses.

The survey gave respondents the option to select a user group that best represented them: 50 respondents self-identified as college students, seven were educators, seven were journalists, 14 were unaffiliated members, and the remaining nine were visitors. This breakdown is similar to NewsTrust Baltimore’s overall statistics, with one exception: We experienced a very high response rate from college students, many of whom were encouraged by their teachers and likely driven by NewsTrust incentives, such as our student certification and awards, to complete the survey. The percentage of student members on the NewsTrust Baltimore site is about 40 percent of total members (versus up to 60 percent of total survey respondents). We used this sample for much of the analysis in this report, as well as for the charts.


Key findings

The majority of respondents (about 60 percent) found NewsTrust Baltimore to be personally useful or very useful. Many survey participants thought the project was unique and a valuable complement to existing news sources, as well as a way to identify trustworthy sources for local news. Respondents also told us that they were introduced to several new media outlets via NewsTrust Baltimore, and they said they felt comfortable commenting in what they considered to be a respectful online community.

Based on the pilot stats we collected, we know that NewsTrust Baltimore had many unique visitors (11,215 visitors in its first three months), but fewer people signed up as members (514) and reviewed stories (329). Most survey respondents (85 percent) said they visited the site weekly, and roughly half (52 percent) reviewed stories at least once a week.

When asked which features of NewsTrust Baltimore were most interesting to them, 59 percent of survey respondents said they were interested in finding good local journalism all in one place and 57 percent were interested in discovering local news sources that they hadn’t heard about.

“I like that I pay attention to a wider variety of new stories and outlets because of NewsTrust,” member Kate Bladow wrote in a survey response.

Diana Soliwon, the former editor of Owing Mills Patch, commented that the local site was “very helpful for someone trying to figure out where to get their information in the greater Baltimore area.”






Responses to a question about possible new services shows that respondents’ interests were divided somewhat evenly among activities for college students (49 percent), a suggestion box for new story ideas (47 percent), and a field guide for local news sources (44 percent).






Areas of improvement recommended by many respondents included making the site simpler to use, adding more diverse and entertaining stories, and increasing community dialogue opportunities.


Findings by group

NewsTrust Baltimore serves many groups of people with different backgrounds, interests and approaches to the site. We have filtered the survey findings into groups to examine their different perspectives on NewsTrust Baltimore.

College students

College students were one of our most active groups of members. Of the students in the community sample, 50 percent of them said they visited the site more than once a week, and 48 percent visited the site weekly or monthly. Students were also our largest pool of reviewers, with 30 percent of respondents saying they reviewed stories every few days and 62 percent reviewing stories weekly or monthly.

Students told us that the program was beneficial to their education and future goals. Many of our student participants were studying journalism and made the connection between NewsTrust’s services and their own careers. Fifty-four percent of respondents liked discovering news sources they hadn’t heard about, and 52 percent liked rating the work of other journalists.

Devin Hamberger said in the survey, “I think it is a great way for students to expose themselves to good journalism that not only helps them be critical consumers, but also helps their own writing skills.”

Micah Mohlmann was one of several students who felt that the site improved their own critical thinking: “I have learned how to better analyze and reviews news stories. It has helped me to critique articles in a professional manner.”

Rebecca Jackson wrote, “As a journalism student, looking at the work of local journalists helped me understand the things I need to look for in my stories.”

While students enjoyed learning more about the big issues of Baltimore, they also expressed interest in seeing more multimedia stories and more news that they felt was relevant to their lives.

“I think that having more news sources for young people would make me visit more often,” wrote Megan Flannery in a survey response.

Other students commented that they would like to read and review more stories about sports, entertainment, the arts, health, and beauty. In addition, 78 percent of college students said they would like to see activities specifically for college students on the site.

Kara Duffy suggested, “I would like to see News Trust have some focus on other colleges. It would be cool to have a group where journalism majors in Maryland colleges could post their articles and have other students grade them.”

Educators

Our teachers, professors and youth workers used the site primarily as an educational tool. JoAnne Broadwater, a Towson University professor, wrote in a survey comment: “I like it for its usefulness in the classroom. I think that it will help students to be more critical of what they are reading. I also like the concept of requiring them to read news and then evaluate it. Since many students do not read news stories at all, they have difficulty writing news stories and grasping the concept of a carefully constructed story. I think NewsTrust will help them to become better writers.”

While the site saw strong adoption by college students and their professors, some respondents saw a need for more focused attention on high school students. Susan Malone, executive director of Wide Angle Youth Media, wrote, “I would have liked to see more intention to create a youth-centered site where young people can start to digest news in bite-size pieces, that utilizes anonymity so young people can feel more inclined to participate.”

The convenience of aggregating local news was appealing to this group of respondents, with 86 percent of educators reporting that they like being able to find local news all in one place. They were also introduced to new local media organizations, with 71 percent reporting that they discovered new news sources via NewsTrust Baltimore.

Journalists

For journalists, NewsTrust Baltimore presented an opportunity to engage with their audience in a new way. A large percentage (86 percent) of journalists who took the survey said they visited the site more than once a week, and 46 percent visited daily, though the majority (71 percent) of journalist respondents said they rarely or never reviewed stories.

Stephanie Hughes, a producer at WYPR-FM, found the site to be valuable to her programming: “I like getting direct feedback on the segments I'm working on. NewsTrust responses are especially valuable because I know people are encountering the segments via the web, as opposed to just on air. WYPR is figuring out how to create great content for both on air and online, and it's interesting to see how reactions from online consumers differ -- it helps us to figure out what we can do to enhance the web experience. “

Howard Libit of Center Maryland, a NewsTrust Baltimore media partner and former Baltimore Sun editor, said in a survey response: “It has been interesting to see and read other people's perspectives on the different journalism taking place in the market. I am also learning about some individuals and groups involved in journalism that I was not previously aware of.”

For some journalists, the site offered new opportunities and new questions. City Paper writer and editor Bret McCabe wrote, “I'm just curious as to how best to interact with the feedback generated by this site, because if people are going to the effort of commenting thoughtfully about what they read, it should have some utility in the practice.”

Journalists were one of the more critical groups of respondents regarding the website’s usability. They described it as “cluttered” and asked for “a better job of displaying stories,” as well as “a more attractive site.” These comments were representative of the suggestions for improvements from this group.  

Members

This “members group” includes members who had signed up on the website and who were not included in the other categories, such as partners and students. Their participation spanned the spectrum, with many members visiting the site weekly (43 percent) and half of all members reviewing once a week (29 percent) to once a month (21 percent).

These members said they liked the convenience of finding good journalism in one place (79 percent), and several mentioned their appreciation of the respectful environment on the site.

Gabby Knighton commented, “I like that there is a ’sane’ community of news readers out there. You don't see them as often in the ‘comments’ sections” of other news sites.

Debra Joseph wrote, “I like the transparency, the focus on smart journalism critiques, and the mutual respect among members.”

This group of members also had suggestions for improvements. Some asked us to increase the number of stories and the frequency of refreshing our pages with new articles. We also found that, while some people were critical that we sent too many emails, others wished we sent more. This suggests that a user’s email preferences and settings could be made more clear, so users could easily adjust their communication with NewsTrust Baltimore to their comfort level.

Visitors

We were fortunate to receive feedback from visitors, partners, community leaders, friends and supporters of the site, people who didn’t consider themselves members but who cared enough about our outcomes to share their thoughts in this survey.

These respondents said they did not review stories often but visited the site frequently (77 percent visited the site at least weekly). Their feedback was thoughtful and specific.

Carl Ehrhardt wrote about the challenges of adding another social network site to his regular use: “Perhaps if NewsTrust were an app for Facebook it would be easier.”

John Walters saw a challenge in the volume of participation on the site and felt that some of the tools,  “like the discussion features, might be useful if there were more users.” Others also expressed this concern about the number of reviewers on the site.


Feedback by activity

In analyzing the survey results, we also looked at how people responded based on their activity on the site. People who said they reviewed stories more than once a week are defined as Active Members, those who reviewed stories weekly or monthly are Basic Members, and people who reviewed rarely or never are considered Visitors for this assessment.

Our Active Members group found the review tools to be a valuable service, with 71 percent of them reviewing stories every few days and 29 percent reviewing stories once a day or more.
Olivia Stephens wrote, “I think it’s a great tool for people to evaluate the news critically and really understand how to find reliable, credible news.”

Active Members also appreciated that NewsTrust Baltimore let them keep up with local news (54 percent) and find everything on one site (50 percent). Lauren Calva commented, “There really isn’t another website, that I know of, that collects local journalism and puts it all in one place.”

The majority (64 percent) of our Basic Members group reviewed stories once a week. They, too, like finding a variety of local news on a single website, but 60 percent also reported that they enjoyed discovering news sources they hadn’t heard about. Basic Members had the greatest number of suggestions for new content and topics.

Our Visitors group did not review stories but visited the site with some frequency, with 49 percent visiting more than once a week. They said they came mainly for the convenience of aggregated local news and are interested in reading a field guide for local news sources.

“The most significant feature for me is NT’s ability to be a trustworthy aggregator of local news,” wrote Michael Catalini, a journalist.


Conclusions

Overall in our collected survey responses, we found that NewsTrust Baltimore was valued as an aggregator of local news, introducing people to new sources and serving as a one-stop daily news site. Members appreciated the rational critique process and the sense of respect for commenters.

NewsTrust Baltimore was also found very useful as an educational tool, helping students build critical media skills, separate fact from fiction, and work on their own writing.

We also learned that there is room for improvement, through streamlining the site, increasing the frequency and diversity of stories posted, and creating more community participation opportunities. There is also a desire for more education resources, both activities for college students and learning tools that are appropriate for high school students.

All of us at NewsTrust and NewsTrust Baltimore appreciate the time and thought that respondents took in answering the survey, and we hope to continue to work together to build a robust, inclusive and relevant news community.

Truthsquad: Is Maryland "America’s number one public school system"?

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by NewsTrust Baltimore writer Andrew Hazlett and originally published on our Baltimore blog on June 20, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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In March 2011, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley stated on his website that Maryland has "America's number one public school system." This claim, which was frequently used by O'Malley and other state leaders in campaign speeches, has been questioned by several experts and commentators, who cite evidence that Maryland public schools are behind other states on a number of key measurements.

Given this controversy, we invited the Baltimore community to join our first local Truthsquad and fact-check this statement on the NewsTrust Baltimore site in June 2011. To find out if O'Malley's claim was true, NewsTrust staff and members posted and discussed a wide range of education statistics and competing arguments over school policies and student achievement.

After reviewing the evidence and views of our community on this statement, NewsTrust Editors find O'Malley's claim to be "HALF-TRUE."

Here are some of the key facts and insights that led us to this finding.

We're No. 1! … Or are we?

 

O'Malley's statement that Maryland has "America's number one public school system" is based in part on research by the newspaper Education Week, which has given Maryland a No. 1 ranking for the past three years. These favorable findings were frequently cited by other state officials, such as Maryland schools superintendent Nancy Grasmick, who has been widely praised for helping improve the state's public schools over the past 20 years.

Maryland schools also received a No. 1 ranking from the College Board for the state with the highest percentage of graduates who have been successful on Advanced Placement tests. And last year, "Maryland was one of only a dozen states to be awarded a $250 million competitive federal grant, known as "Race to the Top," as noted in this Baltimore Sun story.

By these measures, the state's schools would appear to be among the nation's best. But when those reports were released and when O'Malley made this No. 1 claim, several experts and commentators questioned the findings. In recent years, Maryland public school graduates have been deemed unprepared for college. State-by-state comparisons of performance on standardized tests place several states ahead of Maryland in student achievement. And most observers we spoke to agree that Baltimore City's public schools face serious challenges, which seem to contradict this claim.

Evaluating O'Malley's claim

 

Given this mixed evidence, we asked NewsTrust staff and community members to review and post links to relevant news stories and factual evidence related to this claim. Participants were then invited to weigh in with their reactions on a special Truthsquad page, from Monday, June 6 to Sunday, June 19, 2011.

Over the past two weeks, we collected a dozen links to determine the accuracy of Gov. O'Malley's statement. We found a wide range of news stories and opinions, think-tank reports, government statistics, and other evidence and commentary supporting or opposing this claim. Members of the NewsTrust community weighed in with their views and observations, as well. Of 42 respondents at the time this post was written, a plurality of 17 voters found the statement false, but there was no majority view. Fourteen voted that the statement is "true" and nine were "not sure." 

Let's review the evidence we gathered and discussed during our collective quest.

The primary basis for O'Malley's claim appears to be this report produced by Education Week. Their annual "Quality Counts" report is based on test scores, spending figures, and aggregated statistics from 50 distinct indicators. The data are grouped into broad categories: chance of success, K-12 achievement, school finance, and transitions and alignment. This report has given Maryland the highest grade for three years running and, as education reporters for The Sun have pointed out, "Gov. Martin O'Malley and other state leaders mentioned [the Education Week rankings] frequently in campaign speeches."

Community member and former Baltimore Sun editor Howard Libit wrote on the Truthsquad page:

The Education Week analysis of states is about the best system that we have for ranking the states. The long-term consistency of Dr. Nancy Grasmick has provided Maryland with the opportunity to enact reforms and see them through, particularly on such issues as student assessments and holding schools (and systems) accountable for achievement and teacher performance. Setting clear, consistent standards is really one of those things that makes the state stand out.

Still, Grasmick acknowledged some ambiguities in the survey results. At a Washington, D.C., event after the report's release (video available here), Grasmick welcomed the positive attention to Maryland schools, but she shared that her team had "drilled down" into all of the report's 50 indicators and found that "we're not consistently strong in all of those indicators."

There are also important questions about the criteria and findings of the Quality Counts report. In her comments on our Truthsquad page, Sun columnist Marta Mossburg questioned the formula used by Education Week: "A number one ranking should reflect student knowledge, not money spent and other inputs."

Though the Education Week report does reflect attempts to measure student knowledge, it certainly gives considerable weight to "inputs" that may not translate into positive outcomes for students.

At the time the report was released, a story in the The Baltimore Sun noted some skeptical voices, including from a representative for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The Sun article pointed out that "Maryland falls behind in the gap between the achievement of its poor children and those who aren't poor, ranking 37th in the country in the National Assessment of Education Progress."

 

Community Insights

 

In their observations during this Truthsquad, a number of NewsTrust Baltimore community members echoed those concerns.

Community member Khalilah Harris, who heads the Baltimore Freedom Academy, a Maryland charter school, wrote:

The state of Baltimore City schools, Prince George's County schools, schools in NW Baltimore County, etc. are evidence of this claim being questionable. I need evidence of a measure that pairs MD scores with states who use similar tests, rates family engagement, student success post high school, massive reduction of achievement gap on a school by school basis, and a large percentage of its most decrepit school buildings in good condition to agree with this. Being #1 with two of the wealthiest counties in the country is so very easy. Further, there is little to no evidence of efforts or reform that reduce poverty at a rate that would impact the necessary family investment in eliminating low expectations for children.

In reviewing the Education Week study, community manager Gin Ferrara, a former Baltimore media educator, said:

While Maryland ranks 4th in the Achievement Index, the 3rd measurement in that category, achievement gaps between rich and poor, is much lower than the other top states. Maryland's 15.9 ranks us around 37th for providing opportunities for all our citizens.

Several other commenters raised the issue of statewide figures masking inequality and inconsistent results in local districts. To support his finding that O'Malley's statement was "false," community member Chip Molter wrote:

Providing effective education to young people inside Baltimore City is not an easy issue by any means. It is intertwined with so many other issues facing the city and its inhabitants. However, as long as Baltimore City and Anne Arundel school systems occupy a second tier status within the state, it is difficult for the residents of those school districts to cheer along with the Governor as he congratulates himself for the fortune of the rest of the state's educational success.

And NewsTrust Baltimore member Christopher Siple wrote on the Truthsquad page:

A lot of the rural schools and Baltimore City (another school system that rocketed to #1 under O'Malley's leadership if you were to ask him) aren't doing so hot, while Howard and Montgomery Counties are some of the richest in the union, so it isn't terribly shocking that these schools tend to be of a higher quality. Maryland is so heterogeneous in its quality of life and education that it's only political sophistry to claim its #1 status in the entire United States.

Indeed, Census Bureau figures make clear that Maryland is one of the wealthiest states in the nation. But these statewide figures can hide the fact that very large islands of persistent poverty co-exist with the state's wealthier districts.

 

Other Statistics

 

In addition to the Education Week rankings, several other measures would also place Maryland at the top of the education pyramid. The Maryland State Department of Education has celebrated students' high scores on Advanced Placement tests in news releases like this. Though some have doubted the push to enroll students in AP courses and Maryland's efforts specifically, many students in the state seem to be finding success through these opportunities.

On the other hand, there is some evidence that many Maryland students are graduating from high school without the tools they need to succeed in college. In a Baltimore Sun opinion column about Nancy Grasmick's legacy, Marta Mossburg points to remedial education statistics and anecdotes to suggest that there is a "swelling tide of students who graduate from state public high schools without basic reading or math skills."

Last year, a think tank advocating for a more rigorous education compared Maryland's standards with those of other states and the Common Core standards that have recently been adopted in many states. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute gave relatively low marks to Maryland's standards in English language arts (grade "C") and math (grade "D") and said:

The Maryland [English and Language Arts] standards are a mixed bag. Standards are generally well organized, and many are clear and specific. Others, however, fail to clarify expectations or omit essential content that students should master as part of a rigorous, K–12 curriculum. ... Maryland's [math] standards are poorly organized and difficult to interpret without additional explanation, which is only occasionally provided.

In June 2010, Maryland adopted the Common Core standards. Still, the Education Week ranking would have been based on the pre-existing standards that were critiqued by the Fordham study.

Another source to consider in evaluating the governor's claim are data collected by the U.S. Department of Education. According to information we reviewed, Maryland students have done well on reading and math assessments, but they have not scored higher than students in several other states.

The Condition of Education 2011 report is a comprehensive study worth exploring in depth. For our purposes, we can look at some recent statistics on achievement by eighth-graders. The percentage of students scoring at or above "proficient" in reading was 36 percent in Maryland, but 43 percent in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont also had a higher percentage of proficient readers than Maryland.

The results in math were similar. Forty percent of eighth-graders in Maryland were rated at or above proficient in math, but other states had a greater proportion, notably Massachusetts (52 percent).

Another Department of Education report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, had some disturbing figures about Maryland schools. In 2007–2008, 8.4 percent of Maryland public school teachers reported that they were physically attacked by a student from school during the previous 12 months. This was the highest percentage of any state in the nation.

Though the Education Department's vast stores of information should be read and used with care, we found enough data to suggest a more complex reality than O'Malley's claim would indicate.

NewsTrust contributing editor Kristin Gorski, an educator herself, reflected the ambivalence of many commenters:

What makes a school system #1? Governor O'Malley's claim got me thinking. While the Ed Week report indeed gives Maryland public school system its top score, a B+, followers Massachusetts and New York received Bs (all other systems received Cs and below). All school systems have individual districts and schools that are sorely in need of improvement – focusing on broad statements like who is "the best" compared to "the worst" doesn't inform.

NewsTrust member Bob Herrschaft also questioned the basis for making claims like these:

Political rhetoric can't readily be verified when using terms like "number one" (i.e. best). How do we define "number one"? Even two Phds in education are likely to have a completely different definition. Do we go by the number of graduates that go onto higher educational institutions, some of which are sham factories of propaganda, or do we look at the approach to the individual student's capacity to enhance his or her aptitude for learning?

 

Conclusions

 

NewsTrust Baltimore editors acknowledge that Gov. O'Malley's claim can be confirmed by credible independent sources based on certain measurements, but we also found enough reliable evidence to contradict that statement based on equally important measurements, leading to our finding that this claim is only half-true.

More important, we question the value of making such sweeping statements. Dubious claims and overstatements are an inevitable part of our political background noise, but there are costs. A governor should proudly share good news about the state's schools, and many who have celebrated Grasmick's tenure as state schools superintendent are fully cognizant of the major challenges still faced by Baltimore City schools in particular. But a proclamation that Maryland's schools are already "number one" can seem dispiriting to those who are engaged in an uphill struggle to bring educational opportunity to all young people in the state.

This short investigation of Maryland's school rankings has been a rewarding experience for our team. This was our first local fact-checking experiment, and we are bolstered by its results. This short comment from the governor's office gave us an opportunity to delve into complex issues around educational achievement and accountability as a community. We enjoyed this opportunity to learn from each other, through shared links and thoughtful observations from Truthsquad contributors.

We'd like to thank all the participants in this Truthsquad. Together, we explored a complex subject that is a major concern of Maryland's citizens. Your contributions helped expose some pressing issues and open up a valuable discussion, and we hope it will continue. We invite you to post your comments about our findings on our Truthsquad page -- or email us at editors-at-newstrust-dot-net. 

Special thanks to Craig Newmark, NewsTrust advisor and founder of Craigslist.org, for promoting this local Truthsquad in his blog post, which stated: "It's up to us to do the factchecking that we see little of, in TV or newspapers." We wholeheartedly agree, and we appreciate Craig's support of pro-am initiatives like ours.

For more information about separating fact from fiction, check out our "Crap Detection 101" guide by Howard Rheingold, as well as his video version; the Factcheck.org and Politifact websites; and the book "Blur," by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel.

More about Truthsquad

 

To learn more about the Truthsquad initiative, visit our project overview page. Truthsquad aims to strengthen the field of fact-checking by combining the best practices of crowdsourcing and social media with the expertise and knowledge of experienced journalists. This new experiment empowers citizens and journalists to collaboratively fact-check controversial claims from politicians, newsmakers and members of the media. Participants are invited to post questionable claims online, research factual evidence supporting or opposing these claims, and verify their accuracy as a community, with professional oversight.

NewsTrust created and tested Truthsquad in 2010, with funding from Omidyar Network and with the help of partners at the Poynter Institute, as well as advisors such as Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org. The first pilots were well-received by online participants, partners and advisors, as well as by third-party observers, such as GigaOm. To learn more, read our pilot reports on PBS MediaShift, as well as on the national NewsTrust blog. NewsTrust has since hosted a variety of Truthsquads with other partners, including MediaBugs.org and RegretTheError.com, and with advice from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

NewsTrust has now formed a strategic partnership with the Center for Public Integrity to develop a daily service on Truthsquad.com, which we hope to launch in fall 2011. The goal is to create a one-stop destination for fact-checked information -- featuring its own findings, as well as promoting the work of other trusted research organizations, such as FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.

Stay tuned for more announcements about this initiative in coming weeks. To get our free newsletters, we invite you to sign up as a NewsTrust member, if you haven't already. This will also enable you to participate in more Truthsquads like this one.

 

 

-- By Andrew Hazlett, on behalf of the NewsTrust editors

 

Join the Truthsquad and fact-check O'Malley's claim about Maryland schools

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by NewsTrust Baltimore writer Andrew Hazlett and originally published on our Baltimore blog on June 6, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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This week, we're excited to kick off our first local Truthsquad on NewsTrust Baltimore. Truthsquad is our community fact-checking service, where our community helps us research controversial claims from politicians, pundits and public figures.

For the next two weeks, we'll fact-check a claim by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, about the state's public schools system. In a news release, he said that Maryland has "America's number one public school system." We need your help to determine if that's true.

Check out the page for this quote, and follow these steps to participate:

1. Answer the question. Is it true or false?
2. Review the related links.
3. Answer the question again, if needed.
4. Add your own links as research.

As you're considering the statement, you might want to ask yourself some questions: Who determines this ranking? On what criteria is it based? Have you had experiences with the public school system that lead you to believe or to question this statement?

At the end of the two weeks, we'll consider the evidence and reach a verdict, which we'll write up and post on this blog and on the Truthsquad page.

Please join in, and spread the word about this interesting new project!

More about Truthsquad

Truthsquad aims to revolutionize the field of fact checking by combining the best practices of crowdsourcing with the knowledge of experienced journalists. This new initiative empowers citizens to collaborate with journalists to fact-check controversial claims from politicians, newsmakers, corporations, political organizations and members of the media. Participants are invited to post questionable claims online, research factual evidence supporting or opposing these claims, and verify their accuracy as a community, with professional oversight.

NewsTrust created and tested Truthsquad in 2010, with funding from Omidyar Network and the help of partners at the Poynter Institute and advisors at FactCheck.org. The first pilots were well-received by online participants, partners and advisors, as well as by third-party observers, such as GigaOm. To learn more, read our pilot reports on PBS MediaShift, as well as on the national NewsTrust blog. NewsTrust has since hosted a variety of Truthsquads with other partners, including MediaBugs.org and RegretTheError.com, and with advice from Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

NewsTrust has now formed a strategic partnership with the Center for Public Integrity for this project and is developing an ongoing service on Truthsquad.com, which is expected to launch in fall 2011. The goal is to create a one-stop destination for fact-checked information -- featuring its own findings, as well as promoting the work of other trusted research organizations, such as FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.

Join the Truthsquad, and help us separate fact from fiction.

Baltimore, as seen through the prism of different media

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by NewsTrust Baltimore writer Andrew Hazlett and originally published on our Baltimore blog on June 3, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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Since the launch of the NewsTrust Baltimore project, we have conducted several news hunts that focus our community's attention on one major theme for a week. Early in May, NewsTrust Baltimore editor Mary Hartney wrote about our plan for a monthlong News Hunt experiment:

We want to take a closer look at various kinds of news sources. We’ll explore the different styles of journalism found in print, on television, over the radio and online. We will also dive deeper into some of the biggest issues that affect Baltimore.

In that spirit, we spent one week focused on each of the main news media in Baltimore: print (newspapers, magazines, and wire services), television (commercial and public TV), radio (both news and talk), and online (blogs, web magazines, etc.). We blogged at the conclusion of each week and highlighted themes in coverage and pointed to recommended stories -- check out the linked blog posts for those summaries and more specific notes.

Over the course of the month, NewsTrust Baltimore editors and community members reviewed 238 stories. Of those, 28 were rated and 27 were determined to be most trusted. These highly regarded stories give us a sample of the city’s preoccupations and a good sense of how different media cover Baltimore’s most pressing issues.

During the month, the community together reviewed 115 newspaper stories, six from magazines, and four from wire services. We also reviewed 24 television reports, 18 radio segments, eight blog posts, and 63 online pieces.

As a comparison point, since the launch of NewsTrust Baltimore on Jan. 31, we reviewed 702 newspaper stories, 49 from magazines, 26 from wire services, 70 from TV, 74 from radio, 64 blog posts and 351 online stories -- 1,351 total stories. (15 stories are categorized as "other.") 

Themes in coverage

Throughout May, as we examined the local news scene through different media lenses, we found several recurring themes.

News about crime and violence is a matter of routine in Baltimore. Despite the numbing regularity of such news and the temptations to sensationalize, we have seen consistent efforts to humanize and contextualize crime reporting. Of course, there are straightforward crime-blotter reports, but we also saw many examples of compelling interviews, thorough reporting and judicious commentary.

Racial issues are often just below the surface in Baltimore news stories. However, with some prominent exceptions, these concerns are not usually confronted head-on. Is Baltimore’s racial polarization is so ingrained it is no longer considered newsworthy?

Additionally, we certainly saw plenty of coverage of drug-related violence and crime, but we did not review very much journalism about addiction, treatment or the root causes of urban violence.

Various news media outlets have taken a special interest in youth and in area schools. From independent bloggers to The Baltimore Sun, we saw many stories exploring education policy and leadership. In addition to some very prominent tragedies, we also saw significant stories about young people who were not perpetrators or victims of crime.

There was a lot of coverage of economic development in the course of the month, but these stories focused mostly on large public-private projects. We did not see an abundance of journalism about poverty or the day-to-day existences of people outside the economic mainstream.

Keep in mind that the four weeks of this news hunt are a sample of coverage, and these topics may be addressed at other times. 

Different media, different senses

In our weekly posts during this news hunt, we’ve noted how television’s images and immediacy can inform and stir strong emotion. We’ve reflected on the enduring quality of print media, the ubiquity of radio, and the explosion of local news and commentary online.

Contrary to some conventional thought, we found many television stories that eschewed sensationalism in favor of investigative work and reporting on wider contexts. We also found online news sources pursuing and publishing “old-fashioned” original reporting.

In an increasingly digital media environment, some of these barriers between media categories have blurred, and we have noted innovative use of new media from the city’s oldest news organizations. For example, WBAL Radio has been broadcasting since 1925, but it has enhanced its on-air news reporting with online video, additional audio clips and text-based reports. Additionally,The Baltimore Sun has been publishing more and more news in various online media and social networking platforms.

Though online sources are the most diverse by many measures (e.g., writing style and political ideology), they do not seem to reflect the city’s racial and ethnic diversity. It's hard to say if that is a result of a digital divide in internet access or a failure on our part to find and post stories from more diverse sources.

Media and the NewsTrust platform

Because NewsTrust Baltimore is an online forum for finding and reviewing news stories, we are limited to material that appears on the web. If, for instance, a television station does not produce online clips or transcripts, we cannot post and review its stories. The absence of an RSS feed also diminishes our ability to post and review an organization's stories. These are necessary limitations of our project, but they also points to a missed opportunity for these news outlets and their audiences, as well as for the NewsTrust Baltimore community.

Another factor to keep in mind is our propensity toward text-based news stories. We make a concerted effort to include and feature audio and video sources and stories, but the NewsTrust filter and the questions we ask in our review forms are most effective for evaluating longer-form text.

As some experts have pointed out, a lot of news these days is being produced outside the traditional “article.” At present, we don’t have an easy way to capture and review something like Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin Fenton’s informative Twitter feed.

What are we missing?

We’ve tried to be diligent in tracking down and collecting active news sources in Baltimore, but every week we discover new ones in a constantly changing landscape. No doubt we have missed some neighborhood newsletters, personal blogs that venture into commentary, niche media outlets, or brand-new publications. If you know of news sources that we have overlooked, please leave a comment or send us an email at baltimore at newstrust dot net.

One of the primary purposes of NewsTrust Baltimore is to surface and highlight quality journalism -- and we also want to have a conversation about what's not being covered. There are issues, communities and events that simply don’t get the attention they deserve. We welcome your views on what subjects and stories are absent from the Baltimore news ecosystem, and we'll have a focused conversation on current gaps and possible solutions in July. 

Your insights are welcome

What are your thoughts? What are the strengths and weakness of Baltimore’s news outlets in various media? Do you have a preferred way of getting your local news? Please share your experiences in the comments section below and rate and review sources on NewsTrust Baltimore. Thanks for your participation!

 

Photo montage by Fabrice Florin

Print outlets' coverage of the big issues of Baltimore

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by NewsTrust Baltimore writer Andrew Hazlett and originally published on our Baltimore blog on May 11, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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Instead of a traditional weekly news hunt, we are spending May immersed in a broad range of issues facing Baltimore. Each week, we are studying local news coverage through the lenses of different types of media. Last week, we focused on newspapers, wire services and magazines. 

Even in a time of transition in the media landscape, newspapers remain a cornerstone of Baltimore's journalism ecosystem. From The Baltimore Sun to community weeklies, these publications often set the local news agenda.

Wire services like the Associated Press are the original instant news outlets. Their stories are published in print newspapers and offered to online and broadcast media outlets. Students at the University of Maryland's Merrill College of Journalism operate the Capital News Service and provide some excellent coverage of Maryland topics, such as illegal oyster harvesting.

Magazines offer an opportunity to step back from the daily stream of news and to take in a bigger picture. Monthly publications like Urbanite magazine often pair insightful writing with striking visuals. Baltimore magazine's story about the Enoch Pratt Free Library is one example of this powerful combination.

 

Themes in print coverage

Over the course of last week, as we reviewed stories published in these outlets, we saw some recurring themes. 

One crucial function of a widely read mainstream newspaper is to provide a forum for civil debate. In addition to regular columnists and op-ed pieces, The Baltimore Sun often publishes opposing arguments on vital topics. Some of Baltimore's greatest challenges stem from the illegal drug trade, widespread addiction, drug-related crime and large-scale incarceration. Last week, the Sun published opposing views on one approach to tackling those problems: "Drug courts work — I've seen it" and "Drug courts are not the answer."

In addition to the Sun, Baltimoreans have a wide choice of newspapers. There are spirited independent publications and tightly focused professional papers. Some cover specific beats, like The Daily Record on business and law. Others serve particular neighborhoods, community interests or political points of view. Last week, the progressive Indypendent Reader publicized a report by labor activists about the conditions of workers at Inner Harbor businesses. 

Crime and justice issues are always in the background (and often front and center) in Baltimore's news landscape. From a surge in crime in northeast Baltimore to a terrible case of animal cruelty, the city's newspapers are often the source of record. City Paper's weekly "Murder Ink" column is just one example of this important role.

Even as ambitious development projects and are under way (and under debate), people in Baltimore are worried and skeptical about the long-term impact of efforts like the Red Line transportation project. As covered in the City Paper, long-time tenants are being forced out to make way for another major development project. At the same time, educational and recreational programs for underserved youth are diminished by scarce resources and bureaucratic errors. 

In many of these cases, race and legacies of racism play a major role. In "The Power of Pictures" Urbanite magazine explored a fascinating artistic effort to confront and surpass stereotypes of black men and boys. 

At the same time, as covered by The Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore OUTloud newspaper, a violent attack on a transgendered woman in a Baltimore County McDonald's has sparked a new urgency in civil rights advocacy.

 

Join us in the hunt for good journalism

These are just a few of the fascinating stories and deeper themes that have emerged in the first week of our monthlong news hunt. We hope that you'll take a closer look at some of these stories and help us identify other examples of outstanding local journalism.

This week we're examining television news sources in Baltimore. How do they handle these important issues? What are we missing as we collect and review stories? Add your voice to the conversation!

 

Photo credit: Flickr photo from Damon Green

NTB recognizes students' contributions to finding good journalism

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by community manager Gin Ferrara and originally published on our Baltimore blog on May 10, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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We held our student awards event last night at Towson University, sponsored by the school's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Students and faculty gathered to recognize the reviewers who provided our local news experiment with the most trusted, relevant and thoughtful reviews.

Three superlative awards were given to the top reviewers: 

• News Hound: The student with greatest number of trusted reviews.
• Top Student Researcher: The student with the most trusted reviews who also posted the most stories from a diversity of sources.
• Most Trusted Reviewer: The student whose reviews are the most trusted by the NewsTrust community.

We also recognized more than 60 students who have become Certified Student Reviewers. These students all reviewed six or more stories, including two we selected for them, and gave thoughtful, critical reviews. In the coming weeks, you may notice a new badge that recognizes these reviewers on the site.

NewsTrust's founder and executive director, Fabrice Florin, joined us for this event, and he thanked the Towson community for their participation and support of NewsTrust Baltimore. He also gave special thanks to the professors who supported the student reviewers: JoAnne Broadwater, Thom Leib and Stacy Spaulding. Their engagement with the site was instrumental in building student participation.

The gathering concluded with mingling, eating pizza and talking about summer plans. We were happy to hear that many students have internships lined up with news organizations, while others are taking classes or working at summer jobs. We hope these sharp Towson students will continue to be a part of the community now that their coursework is done!

In addition to the Towson awardees, one Loyola University student, RaShawna Sydnor, became a Certified Student Reviewer. We thank her for her thoughtful reviews and enthusiasm for the project and also thank her professor, Stephanie Flores-Koulish, for welcoming us into her classroom.

Here's the complete list of awards and winners:

Most Trusted Reviewer: Anthony E. Laus

News Hound: Devin Hamberger

Top Student Reviewer: Daniel Rodgers

Certified Student Reviewers:

Meghan Ashman, Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Sara Beegoo, Brittany C. Bell, Kate N. Bernard, Jennie Byrne, Lauren Calva, Mike Campbell, Susan Connelly, Michael Correlli, Cari Crabtree, Megen Donovan, Kara Duffy, Lily Duffy, Raymond Alonzo Durante, Delfina Ezcurra, Nattasha Farr, Amanda Khera Fenell, Megan Flannery, Evelyn Fogleman, Breyana Franklin, Amanda Friedberg, Ashley Gallaher, Erica Glass, Alex Glaze, Ariel Gononsky, Kelly Gray, Jacqueline Gucker, Devin Hamberger, Elizabeth Hardisty, Asia S. Hinton, Samantha Iacia, Victoria Karolenko, Dana Kobilinsky, Melissa Kronenberger, Isobel Kuchinsky, Sarah LaCorte, Anthony E. Laus, Laurel Lewkowitz, Sara Lindemann, Sabrina Lindsey, Edward MacNabb, Marie Moore, Ali Pannoni, Rossella Procopio, Hope Regalbuto, Daniel Rodgers, Brendan Russell, Adam Salk, Dana Satisky, Zachary Schwartz, Lauren Slavin, Olivia Stephens, Hannah Stup, RaShawna Sydnor, Kathryn VandenHeuvel, Josh Venecia, Ashley Ward, Alex Watts, Ashley T. Williams, Jeremy Winn, Kayla Yingst, Alyssa Zauderer. 

Looking at how different media cover the news

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by local editor Mary Hartney and originally published on our Baltimore blog on May 3, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community.

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We can get our news in so many ways: by scanning our web browsers, reading newsprint or glossy magazine pages, hearing voices on the car radio, or watching the evening news on local TV stations. We have more choices than ever of how to consume information, but each of these forms of media have their own limits and advantages. 

For the month of May, we'd like to try something new at NewsTrust Baltimore. We want to take a closer look at various kinds of news sources. We'll explore the different styles of journalism found in print, on television, over the radio and online. We will also dive deeper into some of the biggest issues that affect Baltimore. And we're asking you to help us track how different media treat these major concerns.  

Media

To that end, each week in May, we'll examine different sources, grouped loosely by medium. This week, we'll focus on newspapers, magazines and wire services, which we can loosely classify as "print." Next week, beginning Monday, we'll look at television. During the week of May 16, we'll examine radio content. And on the week of May 23, we'll look at blogs and purely online sources. 

After each full week of posting and reviewing content, we'll write a brief blog post summarizing some of the highlights we discovered together as a community. We'll also examine some of the strengths and weaknesses of different platforms. Check back to this blog to stay updated on this ambitious news hunt.

This experiment doesn't mean, however, that we'll sacrifice other news stories and media during any given week. We'll keep up a regular posting and reviewing pace, and we hope you'll help. 

A note about how content is classified: On our sources page, where you can now rate your sources (check out this blog post for more details on that new feature), you'll find that we categorize each source as one primary medium, even though many sources produce journalism across a variety of platforms. For example, The Baltimore Sun (where I used to work) has its roots as a newspaper but produces much web content, including blogs, video and audio; on NewsTrust, we categorize it as a newspaper. Any individual story can be tagged as a different type of content when it's posted, but anything produced by Baltimore Sun staff will be examined during the week that we look at newspapers.

That said, we want this to be a longer-term news hunt, and at the end of the month, we'll look back at all four weeks and discuss our findings and point you to recommended stories and sources. This will allow us to look at a full month's worth of content across media, while considering each week a shorter, deeper dive. 

This week, several monthly Baltimore magazines have posted stories from their May issues, which means this is a great week to look at magazine stories, and we're also including newspapers and wire services in the week of looking at what is historically a "print" medium. May is also sweeps month for our local TV stations, so we're sure to see some interesting stories and projects in the next few weeks.

Issues

We hope that we'll see some journalism this month that explains "the big picture" of Baltimore. We'll be looking specifically for stories that add context and get at the deeper issues that affect this city. We don't know yet what those stories will focus on, so we're also open to highlighting stories that follow what happens in the news this month.

We also encourage you to let us know what issues are important to you -- you can leave a comment here, send us a Tweet, or post on our Facebook wall. And the more you review and leave thoughtful comments on NewsTrust Baltimore, the more we learn what matters to you.

Join us! 

Each week, we'll point to the focus on the "from the editors" box on the homepage and link you to relevant pages to get started reviewing. We need your help to rate and review specific stories each week, and we also encourage you to post stories from your favorite sources to increase the diversity of the journalism on NewsTrust Baltimore. 

Thanks for participating in this experiment!

Introducing source reviews on NewsTrust

Today we're pleased to announce a new NewsTrust feature: You can now rate or review news sources on our site, in much the same way as you review individual stories. If reviewing a story is comparable to rating individual dishes at a restaurant, then source reviews are like rating the restaurant itself -- like you might do on Google, Yahoo or Yelp.

Source reviews combine a quick trust rating with a thoughtful note about the source's journalistic strengths, weaknesses and areas of expertise.

We've already begun using valuable information our users have added to calculate these trust ratings, and we encourage you to refine your ratings of news sources whose work you're familiar with.

This feature has two key applications: source reviews and rating your sources.

 

Source reviews 

To review a source, click on its name anywhere on the site to go to that source's profile page. Then fill in the "Review this source" form in the middle of that page.

The source review form has three parts:

• Rate it: Do you trust this publication? (Rate it on a scale from 1 to 5.)
• Add a note: What are this source's strengths and weaknesses?(Write an open-ended comment.)
• Expertise: Which topics is this source an expert on? (Click all that apply -- or add more topics in the box below.) 

To review a source, click on its name anywhere on the site to go to that source's profile page. Then fill in the "Review this source" form in the middle of that page. Once you've saved your review, you can go back and edit it anytime. 

You will also see reviews from other members on source pages:

For more detailed information on source reviews, check out our FAQ. 

 

Rate your sources

On our "rate your sources" page, you can rate our most popular news sources all in one place. Each source has a quick-rating area, where you can rate a news outlet on a scale of 1 to 5. You may see that some are already filled out; that's feedback you've already given us. If your ratings have changed as you've read more news, please update them and add more!

 

Thanks to our team

We'd like to thank Engineering Manager Subbu Sastry and Designer Caleb Waldorf for their hard work on these applications. Executive Director Fabrice Florin and Managing Editor Jon Mitchell also played key roles in development, and the NewsTrust team is excited about the rollout of these features.

We welcome your feedback on these changes -- feel free to leave a comment below or send an email to feedback at newstrust dot net.

To jump to rating your sources, click on the badge below.

 

Thanks for your participation!

Reinventing the news at Northeastern

Earlier this month, Northeastern University professor Dan Kennedy, a longtime NewsTrust reviewer and advisor, invited his journalism students to review stories on NewsTrust as part of his Reinventing the News class, as he had done in previous years.

Prof. Kennedy prepared his students for this exercise with the help of Mike LaBonte, another veteran reviewer, host and advocate of NewsTrust. Since last year's partnership, we've developed a range of new educational tools to help students tell apart fact from fiction in the news.

Here's Prof. Kennedy's report about this year's project, republished here from his blog.

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Social-networking the news with NewsTrust

Reinventing the News students. For more photos, click on image.

As has become a ritual in Reinventing the News, last Friday, April 1, Mike LaBonte, an editor with NewsTrust, visited our class and helped run a demonstration. NewsTrust is a social network aimed at identifying and rating news stories on criteria such as accuracy, thoroughness and fairness.

This time, we took advantage of advancements in the NewsTrust software to try something new. Jon Mitchell of NewsTrust set up a group page for us, so all student reviews can easily be found there. Earlier today, students finished their NewsTrust reviews for the week and posted their thoughts about the experience on their blogs. Here are the direct links to their NewsTrust posts:

Anna Marden Brianna Tulp Chelsea DeCesare Erin Kelly Gail Waterhouse Jake Sutera Laura Nelson

Lindsey O’Connor Lucas Schoeppner Michele Richinick Pat Tarantino Robert Bumsted Sarah Moffitt Taylor Dobbs

- by Dan Kennedy

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As always, we were very impressed with the quality of reviews from Reinventing the News students, and we loved their blog posts about their experience. Here are a few of our favorite reflections from students:

"I enjoyed my rating exercise, because I’m much more knowledgeable with the site and now I can hopefully use it as a resource for my blog posts. I enjoy how users can rate journalists and weed out poor journalism."
- Brianna Tulp

"News Trust depends on many levels to function and ensure quality; from the thousands of people who rate articles to the editors to the admins. The basic concept behind News Trust is great, people can choose articles and be able to trust them before they even begin to read based on others comments. This is also its flaw though. Everyone should read articles critically and not rely on someone elses rating of the article as whether or not it is valuable"
- Sarah Moffitt

"Though NewsTrust isn’t generating the traffic I feel it needs to effectively serve its intended purpose, I plan to keep reviewing and posting stories to the site. I really like the interface and the concept put forth here, and I hope to see the community grow and the traffic grow until NewsTrust can properly filter the day’s stories."
- Taylor Dobbs

Prof. Kennedy offered these remarks after the conclusion of the exercise:

In my experience, NewsTrust helps students think critically about journalism -- what's good, what's bad and how a story could be made fairer or more thorough. Because I teach journalism, my hope is that NewsTrust will lead students to become not just better educated consumers of news, but more thoughtful practitioners of their craft as well.

 

We're very grateful to Dan and his students for participating on NewsTrust and sharing their good insights with us. A big thanks as well to veteran NewsTrust host Mike LaBonte for presenting our work to this year's class.

To learn more out educational partnerships with NewsTrust, check out our 2010 Education Report.

- by Jon Mitchell

The first six weeks of NewsTrust Baltimore

This blog post about our NewsTrust Baltimore local news experiment was written by local editor Mary Hartney and originally published on our Baltimore blog on March 15, 2011. It is republished here for the benefit of our national community with some additional material.

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As we hit the midpoint of March, we're a month and a half into the NewsTrust Baltimore pilot, and this is a good opportunity to take a step back to see how this social news experiment is going.

Let's start with the stats. In the first six weeks of this project, we've had more than 6,000 visitors to the site, with more than 12,000 visits, and nearly 60,000 page-views. On average, NewsTrust Baltimore users spend nearly 6 minutes on the site per visit -- wow! That tells me that our members are very engaged, which we also see from their thoughtful comments and reviews. We have nearly 500 members at this point, and more than 300 of those are reviewers. We're delighted that these numbers exceed our goals!

We've set some additional goals for ourselves for the extension of this project, which will run through July, and we're well on our way to hitting those marks. Our media and educational partners continue to help us grow, by promoting this project, sending us visitors and asking their communities to review stories on NewsTrust Baltimore.

We're grateful that our members continue to support this social news experiment, as well. NewsTrust Baltimore reviewers are leaving thoughtful reviews across the site -- check out these blog posts for examples -- and helping post stories from a variety of news sources covering Baltimore and Maryland.

As we move forward, we want to stay connected to our community, and we always welcome your feedback. Are we missing any sources that you like to read online? Have we missed news stories that are important to you? Would you like us to work with your school or educational program? Let us know how we can help and improve. You can always leave a comment on the blog or send us an email at baltimore-at-newstrust-dot-net.

If you haven't already signed up for NewsTrust Baltimore, please do so. To stay up to date with the latest news and information about this project, we recommend you sign up to get our daily and weekly newsletters, which you can sign up for in your "my account" area, in the emails tab. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks for helping make this experiment a success!

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Here are reports on the first six news hunts we conducted in Baltimore:

• Politics News Hunt Results
• Business News Hunt Results
• Sci/Tech News Hunt Results
• Living News Hunt Results
• Community News Hunt Results
• Transportation News Hunt Results

To learn more about these programs, read our News Hunts overview page.

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Here is an excerpt from community manager Gin Ferrara's blog post on March 17, 2011 about the first NewsTrust Baltimore community meet-up:

On Tuesday evening, March 15, we stepped away from our computers and headed down to Teavolve in Harbor East for our first meetup with the NewsTrust Baltimore community: partners, journalists, members, and Baltimoreans invested in good journalism. We wanted to celebrate the extension to the pilot and to have the chance to just chat with each other about Baltimore, journalism, and our role as members of the broader community.

Check out our photo slideshow from the event:

Read more about the meet-up on the Baltimore blog.