Noticed how crowds have taken over journalism?

Award for crowdsourced journalism?

In 2009, crowdsourced journalism came of age and broke through into the mainstream of journalism

In terms of journalistic coverage of last year, crowd-sourced journalism had a finger in most of the bigger pies. The US airliner that ditched into the Hudson river in January was first announced on Twitter.
For the coverage of the uproar after the Iran elections in June, relying on crowdsourced material was vital for an international press that were locked away in their hotel rooms by the Iranian government.

Crowdsourced material was used to explain when Haiti was ravaged by an earthquake in January 2010, and the Telegraph, among others, has just launched a site to crowdsource the general election. Finally, crowd-sourced journalism has transformed itself into an effective research tool.

Basically, there are two different ways of using crowdsourcing in journalism. One is by an individual reporter during investigative reporting. The other is by the now-common crowdsourcing by news organisations to gather as much information as possible about an event. Both turn traditional journalistic sense upside down.

Up until now, journalism has been devoted to verified facts – but the crowdsourced approach is generally not about using previously trusted sources. Instead of checking each contribution and verifying it individually, this was the start of a new statistical approach. There have been several events in the recent years – from the London bombings to Mumbai and the recent Haiti earthquake – where the material provided by users was faster, more detailed and richer than the material provided by news agencies.

More reporters have started to use a crowdsourced approach to gather information – ignoring the journalistic tradition that an investigation has to be shielded from their competitors. Paul Lewis, who just was named reporter of the year at the prestigious British Press award for his G20 coverage for the Guardian, makes a plea for getting real: "There are not too many rivals out there. Ask yourself: who is the competition? You've got more to gain than you've got to lose."
In the past, only the big names were able to shine after they left their news organisation. Today, all journalists can be independent as they build up a community that sticks with them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/mar/30/digital-media-crowdsourcing-crowd-sourced-journalism