YouComm News
Encyclopedia
YouCommNews is an Australia
n non-profit
organisation based on the US group Spot.us
which brings journalists, publishers and the public together for crowd-sourcing of ideas and resources (including funding) for high quality, community driven journalism. It was founded in 2010 by freelance journalist Melissa Sweet
and Dr Margaret Simons of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation (PIJ Foundation) based at Swinburne University of Technology
, Melbourne.
Members of the public can participate either by suggesting ideas for stories they would like a journalist to cover, or by donating money towards a story pitch. Journalists can either suggest a story idea or apply to fulfil an existing story idea.
Publishers can either jointly fund stories or purchase completed stories, with funds reimbursed to donors.
The project launched with a story investigating the suspension of a childhood immunisation program following many instances of childhood febrile convulsions in Australia.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n non-profit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
organisation based on the US group Spot.us
Spot.us
Spot.Us is a non-profit organization designed to bring citizens, journalists, and news publishers together in an online marketplace based on crowdsourcing and crowdfunding methods and principles. It was founded in 2008 by David Cohn, who from the Knight Foundation to pursue his idea...
which brings journalists, publishers and the public together for crowd-sourcing of ideas and resources (including funding) for high quality, community driven journalism. It was founded in 2010 by freelance journalist Melissa Sweet
Melissa Sweet
Melissa Sweet is a multi-award winning Australian freelance journalist and author. Formerly employed by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin magazine and Australian Associated Press, she specialises in writing about health and medical issues....
and Dr Margaret Simons of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation (PIJ Foundation) based at Swinburne University of Technology
Swinburne University of Technology
Swinburne University of Technology is an Australian public dual sector university based in Melbourne, Victoria. The institution was founded by the Honourable George Swinburne in 1908 and achieved university status in June 1992...
, Melbourne.
Members of the public can participate either by suggesting ideas for stories they would like a journalist to cover, or by donating money towards a story pitch. Journalists can either suggest a story idea or apply to fulfil an existing story idea.
Publishers can either jointly fund stories or purchase completed stories, with funds reimbursed to donors.
The project launched with a story investigating the suspension of a childhood immunisation program following many instances of childhood febrile convulsions in Australia.