How Canada Can Support Serious Journalism

Today I submitted this 3-page comment letter [updated version 2016-10-04] with a policy proposal to let Canadian voters allocate public funding to competing journalist teams. This would support more public interest journalism such as election coverage and watching out for corruption in government. I recommend testing it in municipal politics before implementing it nationally. Canada's federal government has commissioned a study and report on this topic from the Public Policy Forum.

Quote:

It's not that people don't understand the need for [public interest journalism]. We just need an incentive-compatible way to pay for it.

Relevant links:

• 2016-03-10 Does serious journalism have a future in Canada?
• 2016-06-21 Five things to know with Canada's news media industry under public policy review
• 2016-08-07 John Oliver (HBO) Last Week Tonight: Journalism
• 2016-08-08 Podcast interview: Should The Government Bail Out The News Business?
• 2016-09-01 Ottawa cuts newspaper ad spending amid worries about sector

Newspaper Sponsorship for Municipal VoterMedia #bcmuni #bcpoli

[BTW in case you missed it, VoterMedia.org got some in-depth coverage at The Tyee the other day: A Math Wiz's Idea to Revive Local Journalism]

I recently drafted this proposal -- would appreciate your comments & advice. Summary is below; full 7-page version here.

Newspaper Sponsorship for Municipal VoterMedia

This paper proposes an experiment in political media reform, in which competing newspapers would jointly sponsor a blogging contest to cover a city government and community issues. The goal is to test whether the VoterMedia design for a blog contest will generate enough public interest journalism to make it worthwhile for municipal taxpayers to fund such competitions in the future. This could become a new source of revenue supporting journalism that covers not only cities, but also other voter communities, including democracies and corporations.

To give newspapers a near-term incentive to sponsor (in addition to the long-term incentive of a potential future revenue source), the competing blogs would be required to grant the sponsors non-exclusive rights to publish their blog posts, with attribution and link-back. To simulate a taxpayer-funded competition, entry would be as open as possible, admitting any individual, group, or organization. This would include amateur bloggers and professional journalists, whether free-lance or on staff of a sponsoring (or non-sponsoring) newspaper. So for example, sponsors could enter the competition and try to win some of their money back. The contest should therefore be administered independently from the sponsors.

VoterMedia.org (a nonprofit project) is offering to administer the proposed competition for free, including hosting the voting -- see for example votermedia.org/burnaby. The VoterMedia contest design has been tested and refined for the past five years at the University of British Columbia's student union, and in some municipal elections in Metro Vancouver, Canada. Experimental results at UBC are discussed by participants in video interviews at votermedia.org.

[Complete 7-page proposal here]

New video: Expand VoterMedia to Municipal Politics #bcmuni

We just released a video: Expand VoterMedia to Municipal Politics

In it, UBC students (and a poli sci professor) discuss the idea of VoterMedia blog competitions that cover municipal governments. They have already had a positive effect on UBC student union politics -- see video How VoterMedia Affects Election Campaigns. A quote from Andrew Carne (Blogger, UBC Insiders):

You get these smaller media outlets, that actually do their own investigative work, they are able to present a different outlook on a story than the mainstream media does. So you get different opinions out there, and you may even get more facts, and information, than you do from the CBC or whoever's reporting.

We are pursuing two promising avenues for funding municipal blog contests:

• Participatory Budgeting -- a global reform movement that lets voters allocate part of municipal budgets.
• Sponsorship by newspaper publishers.

Here's a current muni contest ballot: votermedia.org/burnaby

VoterMedia as Participatory Budgeting

I'm excited about the possibilities for adding votermedia to the menu in the growing global participatory budgeting (PB) movement. So I drafted this paper and submitted it to the March 2012 International PB Conference in New York City.

Related links:

• Wikipedia: Participatory Budgeting
• Global map of PB projects
• The conference in New York will be at the same time as the final vote in the PB in NYC process

#bcmuni2011 Blog Competition Continues #SurreyBC #Burnaby #NorthVancouver

Congratulations to all participants in yesterday's municipal elections across British Columbia -- candidates, campaigners, media, voters, and election administrators!

It ain't over: The VoterMedia B.C. Municipal blog contests will continue -- rules & (free) entry form here.

When we launched this competition, our plan was to fund each of 5 cities for 50 days x $20 = $1,000. No one entered in West Vancouver or Richmond, so we plan at least to fund the other 3 cities for $1,000 each.

North Vancouver got its first entrants on October 4, so it's funded for 50 days starting then. Last funded day will be November 22.

Surrey will use up its $1,000 on November 29.

Burnaby started later, and will not use up its $1,000 by November 30. As you can see in the rules, we only committed to funding through November 30.

However, we aim to keep the contests going forever in some form, with the goal of encouraging blogger coverage of any issues of interest to the community. So even without funding, the ballots will stay open. New entrants can come in, links will show their blogs & posts, people can vote on them etc. Shares will continue to be calculated daily, but with no funding it will be e.g. 47% of $0 = $0.

There are several possibilities for more funding:
- I might donate some more, and keep it going at $10/day for a while.
- We plan to solicit donations/sponsorships from readers &/or city governments &/or media organizations etc.

So I've updated the contest descriptions on the website to reflect these developments. Will post again here if/when there is more funding.

I welcome any advice, questions etc.

Should journalists endorse election candidates? #bcmuni2011

My opinion:

Yes, journalists should endorse election candidates. Reasons below. Comments welcomed!

Context:

We are now at the height of the election campaigns for all municipal governments in British Columbia. Voting day is November 19.

VoterMedia.org is sponsoring competitions for blogs covering the elections in Burnaby, Surrey and North Vancouver. (Info & entry form here.)

My reasons:

My main reason is having watched the UBC student union elections for the past 5 years, the endorsements of candidates published by bloggers covering those elections seem to have been helpful information for voters. Voters who did not want to spend much time doing their own research (i.e. most voters), could find well reasoned endorsements to help guide them to choose candidates that would serve the voters' interests well. (Here's an example.)

It's important to note, however, that those 5 years of elections were held in the context of bloggers being rewarded via a VoterMedia system, where voters allocate funds to blogs they found helpful. I designed that system to give journalists a stronger economic incentive to build reputations for serving the voters' interests. Once they have built those reputations, they can endorse candidates without worrying so much that their endorsements will automatically be viewed with suspicion.

Journalists working in other incentive contexts have good reason to worry. There is widespread suspicion (probably justified) that many media organizations have incentives other than the broad public (i.e. voters') interest. For that reason, I think, many excellent journalists avoid endorsing. Many of those who publish endorsements (often non-journalists) are partisan, explicitly or implicitly campaigning on behalf of those they endorse, and often paid for doing so. Perhaps to avoid that taint, some journalists believe they should maintain "objectivity" by not taking sides.

Limits on my opinion:

So perhaps I should limit my opinion to the context of bloggers in VoterMedia competitions. I don't understand the incentives of mainstream media journalists well enough to have a strong opinion for them. And in the VoterMedia context, I should further limit my opinion by emphasizing that this is only my advice to bloggers and voters, but they are free to ignore it. I'm used to having my advice ignored!  ;-)

I believe more strongly in freedom of the press and democratic choice by voters than in my own opinions. But I also believe in free speech, so I feel free to express these opinions.

What are your opinions? Express below or by email to mark[at]votermedia.org...

#bcmuni2011 $5k Blog Competition Update #RichmondBC #SurreyBC #Burnaby #NorthVancouver #WestVancouver

There's still time to enter and vote in the 2011 VoterMedia BC Muni Election Blog Competition -- entry form here. We're offering up to $5,000 in awards for blogs covering the November 19 elections in:

• Richmond
• Surrey
• Burnaby
• North Vancouver
• West Vancouver

Press coverage of this contest:

• Burnaby Now 2011-11-09
• Capilano Courier 2011-11-02
• 24 Hours Vancouver 2011-10-13
• North Shore Outlook 2011-10-12

2 entries in North Van blog contest #bcmuni2011 #NorthVancouver

Today two blogs entered the VoterMedia.org blog contest, covering the October-November municipal election campaigns in North Vancouver City & District. You can read them and vote them shares of the $1,000 award pool at votermedia.org/northvan.

Anyone can enter a blog in our contests to win a share of the $5,000 in cash awards for covering elections in any of 5 cities: North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Richmond. There's no entry fee or deadline. Awards tallied daily in October and November. Info & entry form at votermedia.org/bcmuni2011.

Civic Surrey enters $5k blog contest #bcmuni2011 #surreybc

Civic Surrey is the first entrant in the $5,000 VoterMedia blog contest covering the October-November B.C. municipal election campaigns -- welcome! You can vote for them and follow links to their blog at votermedia.org/surreybc.

Anyone can enter a blog in this contest, covering elections in any of 5 cities: Surrey, Richmond, Burnaby, North Vancouver or West Vancouver -- info & entry form at votermedia.org/bcmuni2011. No entry fee.

Civic Surrey's entry illustrates our contest rule that even election candidates can enter their blogs. Blog editor Paul Hillsdon is a candidate for Surrey School Board. See rules (end of page) for our reasons, and feel free to comment here!

#bcmuni2011: $5,000 for bloggers covering BC municipal elections

British Columbia municipal elections will take place on November 19, 2011.

To encourage better voter information, VoterMedia.org is offering up to $5,000 in cash awards for blogs covering elections in 5 municipalities -- up to $1,000 each for 5 blog competitions covering:

• Burnaby
• North Vancouver
• Richmond
• Surrey
• West Vancouver

The competition judges will be the public -- anyone who votes on each city's votermedia.org ballot linked above.

Info & entry form at votermedia.org/bcmuni2011. No entry fee or deadline; daily awards start from October 1.

Please forward to bloggers, election candidates, current and former city councillors, and anyone interested in municipal elections.

Twitter: #bcmuni2011

(We're also happy to add blogs and ballot pages for other municipalities, without funded contests.)

Vote to allocate media funding percentages

We have implemented a new feature empowering voters to allocate percentages of a budget to competing websites/blogs at votermedia.org.

For some interesting examples, see these community pages:

Vancouver

UBC AMS (student union)

USA Investor Education

You can now vote at new Global Voter Media Platform

We've just released the first beta version of votermedia.org, where you can now vote on media that cover Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Iran, Microsoft, CBC etc etc. It's designed to have a page of voter-ranked media (blogs and others) for each voter community in the world. You can add new communities and new media to this voting system.

There's more explanation on the site's FAQ page, and in the paper "Global Voter Media Platform" at votermedia.org/publications.

Come and help reform our governments, corporations and other large organizations!

http://votermedia.org

Vancouver awards morphing to BC ranking

With the municipal elections behind us, the Vancouver Election Blog Awards will now become the British Columbia Politics Blog Ranking. Provincial election and referendum are are only 6 months away!

Check out the total awards won by each Vancouver blog from May through November 2008.

We are building a new scalable website platform for media/blog voting. To conserve time and funds for that, the B.C. blog ranking will not have awards for now, and will be updated monthly instead of weekly. The UBC blog awards will continue, at least through their election in late January 2009.

Vancouver awards update

I did the weekly tally update today -- see new ballot & blog links.

Vancouver election is this Saturday Nov 15! Be sure to vote.

After next Monday Nov 17, the Vancouver Election Blog Awards will change dramatically. I'll blog about it then.

So I'll accumulate this week's awards through next week, and pay them all out after that.

BTW I couldn't revive my PC that crashed a week ago, so last Tuesday I bought a Mac. Now learning how to set up and use this new hardware & software system...

Vancouver update

I did the weekly tally update today -- see new ballot & blog links.

With less than 2 weeks to the municipal elections, I'm preparing for the next stage of evolution of voter funded media system designs. The two-part ballot we used in the past week (funding vote for top ten, yes/no vote for the rest) was interesting, but difficult to tally and re-rank consistently.

So this week I'd like to try a very simple design: approval voting, much like at Digg.com.

My main computer crashed yesterday and is still down, so it's hard for me to update the votermedia website with today's tally results. I'll try to get to it soon.

Vancouver awards updated

In today’s vote count, Vancity Buzz took over first place, and newcomer re:place Magazine is in second. We’re also trying out a new ballot format – see ballot and blog links.

See also:
- cumulative awards & other info
- vote tally details & history

Vancouver awards updated today

As mentioned earlier, today only I’m deviating from the usual Monday weekly schedule for the Vancouver Election Blog Awards. We’ll be back on Mondays starting October 27.

Voters again rewarded five media/blog entrants, this time putting Vancity Buzz back in the money – see ballot for awards & links.

Vancouver awards update; skipping a week

I just tallied the votes for this week’s Vancouver Election Blog Awards. Lowering the award cap from $150 to $100 has shared the wealth a little further – 5 winners this week instead of 4. Beyond Robson remains in the lead; Only Magazine won its first award. See ballot and blog links.

With Thanksgiving next Monday, and me on a trip to New York October 18 to 25, I’m going to stretch out the next two award voting periods to a week and a half each. So next two tally updates will be Thursday October 16 and Monday October 27. Then we’ll be back on a weekly Monday schedule.

I’ll be meeting some of my old Wall Street buddies. We should have plenty to talk about…

Vancouver weekly blog awards; award ceiling

I just tallied the votes for this week’s Vancouver Election Blog Awards. The four winners are the same as last week, but awards have shifted a little – see ballot. Thank you all participants!

Going forward, you’ll see on the ballot that I decided to revert the award ceiling from $150 back down to the $100 that we were using through July 14. I think of the ceiling as training wheels which I’d like to remove eventually. In this early experimental stage of the blog awards, funding is limited to what I can afford. So publicity is limited, partly because the award pool doesn’t motivate enough publicity from the bloggers. As a result, our voter sample is probably not broad enough to be representative of all Vancouverites. But when I pitch for foundation funding, I’d like to show preliminary results that are more reflective of how the awards would work out with a broader voter sample.

To see what effect the ceiling had, I tried raising it for a while. Ideally, I’d like to give voters as much power as possible, including the freedom to allocate awards any way they want. But for now I think this bicycle is tilting too far, so I’ve lowered the training wheels back down.

By the way, we also plan to attract and retain more voters by building a new ballot with features like the latest headline from each media/blog.

I welcome your comments and suggestions on all this!

Vancouver Election Blog Awards weekly update

I've just tallied the votes for this past week. The awards came out the same as last week. So congratulations to prize winners Beyond Robson, The Tyee, David Eby and Frances Bula -- see ballot at votermedia.org/van. Thank you to all participants -- media/blogs and voters.

As usual, details of votes and award allocation method are in spreadsheets linked here.

I get the sense that I've been over-emphasizing the competitive aspect of voter funded media, so I changed the name from "Vancouver Election Blog Contest" to "Vancouver Election Blog Awards", took out the ranking numbers, and changed some of the wording on the ballot and the terms.