ProPublica's Investigative Bloggers

ProPublica, the non-profit journalism organization that funds reporters to delve into national issues and then sells its stories to national media, is starting an investigative project with citizen bloggers that will look into the federal stimulus package. (Here's the story on ProPublica's site).

The idea of "Adopt a Stimulus Package" is to set bloggers to work following one project being funded by the stimulus package, say a local bridge, through to its completion. The reporters would find out how many people use the bridge, how the bridge was constructed, how many people were hired to build it, etc.

"We want to get reports from people across the country to help us measure the impact of the spending and to see what’s really taking place in their communities,” said Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica's managing editor.

I hate to say it but the idea makes a lot of sense. It would be impossible for reporters to tackle a project of this scope because of its sheer magnitude. By getting citizen journalists to do the grunt work, ProPublica can get a lot of detailed information. Assuming that reporters and editors provide some supervision (and fact checking) it could be a great way to wed reporting and blogging.

Of course, this is just another instance of how blogging (i.e. largely unpaid work) is taking over reporting and editing (paid work). But that ship has sailed already so maybe it's time to move on and figure out how to make these things work. I'll be interested to see how this one turns out.