The Guardian has been consistently condemning and seeking the truth about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal since it broke in the summer. The website was the first place you looked to get the latest news in what was certainly the media story of the year.
So, in order to practice what they preach, and in an effort to elevate transparency in the newsroom, the Guardian is making its schedule of upcoming stories available to the public in a two-week experiment. The paper is inviting readers to contribute by contacting the reporters assigned to each story.
It has embedded three Google Docs spreadsheets listing stories in progress over on its live blog. The assigned reporter’s name and a link to his or her Twitter handle is listed alongside a short description of each story.
Not all stories are included, however; exclusives and embargoed content is kept private to protect both sources and the paper from competitors.
Dan Roberts, national news editor at The Guardian, says the experiment is a logical outgrowth of the paper’s move towards a more open news environment.
“If we tell people where we’re headed they can point out important aspects to cover,” Roberts says. “Likewise, if we’re missing a story they can tell us early enough, instead of moaning about it the next day.”
When asked if he was worried about opening up access to competing papers, Roberts says their own potential benefits far outweighed any advantage the paper would be giving competitors. “We’re [already] getting a lot of help from Twitter,” he says. “Some of our best sources are [readers] who see what we’re doing and help us along.”
Roberts says it has attracted a “surprising amount of interest” thus far. “We’ve had hundreds and hundreds of people get in touch,” he says. “Three or four concrete story ideas have developed.”
The experiment will run for two weeks, and may become a permanent part of The Guardian‘s operations. The trial period will primarily be used to optimize the format, says Roberts.
Source: Mashable
