The CrowdNewsroom facilitates journalistic investigations on social grievances, allowing many individuals to participate. Its core is a digital platform where information can be shared in a secure and confidential way.
In a virtual dialogue, citizens report what is on their minds and provide important documentary evidence. Using this structured information, journalists then take up the inquiries.
In this way, we create stories in which readers are crucially involved from the very beginning. We at CORRECTIV CrowdNewsroom and our media partners publish these stories and follow up on them.
Normally, journalists investigate on their own and then publish the result. Investigations with the CrowdNewsroom are different. Those affected – e.g. tenants, soccer players, cyclists and many more – share knowledge, important data and insights and thus create the basis for a journalistic analysis. This sheds light on the topics that are really preying on the community's minds.
Media partners, civil society and our journalists at the CORRECTIV CrowdNewsroom promote public discussion on the internet and on the ground and encourage participation in crowd research on the internet. The actual CrowdNewsroom works similarly to a structured interview or questionnaire and does not take very long. In its course, participants can provide assessments, report on experiences or share evidence. This is done securely and if desired anonymously.
In a CrowdNewsroom, citizens share data, some of which can be very personal. That is why data protection is a top priority for all CrowdNewsrooms. Data is only stored for a specific investigation and then deleted. Until then, it is subject to media privilege and stored in an internal database of the CORRECTIV research network on European servers that are protected from outside access by encryption.
Behind the CORRECTIV CrowdNewsroom stand an association under Swiss law based in Zurich and the non-profit CORRECTIV research network. We facilitate journalistic investigations in which many individuals participate. Together, citizens and journalists uncover grievances or scrutinize the actions of companies and authorities using the CrowdNewsroom platform that was developed and tested by CORRECTIV.
At the moment, the CORRECTIV CrowdNewsroom and the CORRECTIV research network in Germany conduct their investigations with media partners and civil society groups. The results are published jointly. Our goal is to provide access and the necessary know-how to everyone worldwide who is planning investigative research with citizen participation.
Through the CrowdNewsroom, citizens are part of journalistic investigations, the results of which they later read. In the process, they learn how journalists work and that the media, as the people's advocate, can independently monitor the state and society. This not only increases trust in legitimate media outlets, but also helps distinguish real news from fake news.
"Thanks to our readers, we have uncovered many stories that we would never have known otherwise" – Hendrik Lehmann, Der Tagesspiegel
"Our readers, more than anything else, have said: This project is great!" – Monika Jäger, Mindener Tagblatt
"'Who owns Hamburg?" is an outstanding example of how journalism on the net using digital tools can fulfill its social role and responsibilities." – Jury of the Grimme online award 2019
As managing director of the CORRECTIV CrowdNewsroom, Marc Engelhardt is the contact person for editors as well as civil society cooperation partners.
The CrowdNewsroom promotes democracy by involving citizens in journalistic investigations. In this respect, the association for the promotion of citizen journalism, founded on the initiative of CORRECTIV in Zurich, exclusively and directly pursues non-profit purposes. Switzerland, with its tradition of direct democracy, is particularly suited to the employment and further development of the CrowdNewsroom. That is why it is the focus of a project on citizen journalism funded by the " Digitalization + Society"-program of the Mercator Switzerland Foundation.
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