Great column by Craig Silverman at Poynter.org that gives a clear-eyed assessment of the “inevitable” shift to data-driven journalism. Good stuff.
“Journatic’s approach — and the change it represents — is not going away. That means it’s important for journalism to find ethical, responsible and productive ways to integrate these approaches. To set benchmarks and guidelines for producing quality content using the kind of low-cost labor and mass production techniques that were long ago adopted in manufacturing. To find a better way forward.”
“You have to determine which stories can be written from afar, and which must be done by those with local knowledge. … The starting point is to establish policies, procedures, and standards to guide outsourced, mass production content operations [for] quality control.”