The Transparency Initiative
The transparency initiative is a major new international project led by the Media Standards Trust in association with the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI). We are exploring and developing ways to make online news more transparent so that the public has the information they need to make good choices.
In May 2008, the Transparency Initiative became the first UK-based project to win a grant from the Knight News Challenge, an international project which funds innovation in digital journalism (read more). The MacArthur Foundation has also supported the project since its inception.
The issue
In 2006 the world generated 161 billion gigabytes of digital information. That is equivalent to 3 million times the information in all the books ever written. By 2010 we will be creating 6 times as much again. 70% of this, it is predicted, will be user generated.
How can anyone be expected to navigate through this forest of information? How can people distinguish between accurate, useful information and inaccurate mis- or disinformation? One way is to look for news articles, particularly those written by reputable organisations. News covers every subject from politics to health, accumulates faster than almost any other content, and is syndicated via countless different outlets. A major news story, for example, will have as many as 2,500 articles associated with it on Google News.
Yet right now information about how news has been produced - who wrote it, when it was first published etc. - is not captured consistently or transparently. If it was it could be of enormous benefit to the journalist, to news organisations and, most importantly, to the public. The Transparency Initiative is all about developing a common approach to capturing this information consistently and transparently.
The Initiative
The Media Standards Trust will be working closely with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and the other directors of the Web Science Research Initiative to explore and develop ways in which help people find and assess news content on the web.