As the drama surrounding the Gulf oil spill incident starts to die down, the news industry is taking the time to reflect on the quality of reporting during the crisis. Both multimedia and crowdsourcing technologies are becoming more popular as a method of gathering news, and the Gulf oil crisis offers a kind of case study as to how reporting with technology was conducted and what can be improved upon in the future. Pew Research recently released its analysis on the coverage, claiming the news industry did an excellent overall job covering the Gulf story. Conversely, Al Tompkins from PoynterOnline claims that lessons on reporting can still be learned from this experience, specifically how to handle a crisis reporting and how to improve crowdsourcing techniques.

According to a Pew Research study, reporters covering the gulf oil spill had several obstacles to overcome. The crisis was of a different nature than most natural disasters, as the leak lasted a long period of time. Pew commended journalists for keeping with the story over several months and for adequately explaining technological terms and giving explanations of the ecological impact. Yet Pew did comment that multimedia tools tended to be used incorrectly, which complicated the story for the audience.

In its final analysis, Pew concluded that news organizations used multimedia tools to generate a plethora of information without enough context. "Some website features provided static graphics or graphics that were simply too intricate to be understood by someone without a working knowledge of engineering or science," reported Pew Research. "The Los Angeles Times often posted graphics that appeared exactly as in the newspaper. The Wall Street Journal offered diagrams that weren't interactive and packed with so much detail that they were difficult to comprehend." The New York Times was praised for its video animation as an example of an effective method to explain the complexity of the crisis to a nontechnical audience.

CNN and ProPublica were the only news sources included in the Pew Report that took

advantage of crowdsourcing tools. CNN encouraged people affected by the natural disaster to document their experiences on iReport. At the beginning of this month, CNN had over 240 videos on its website. ProPublica, an online-only investigative website, leveraged its readership as a content sourcing tool. The news source asked readers who had filed a lawsuit against BP to have the lawyers and executives responsible for denying the claim to contact reporters at ProPublica.

Poynter's three day seminar for reporters covering the gulf oil disaster examined the use of crowdsourcing, looking at The Louisiana Buck Brigade as their case study. Like many journalists, the social action organization did not believe in relying on governmental information as their only source of information. The Louisiana Buck Brigade built a social networking map that was based on the open-source code from Ushahidi. People could record what they heard, saw, or smelled around the Gulf area. The group claimed that since April, it has received 2,038 reports. Roughly 77% of those reports are "verified," meaning that three or more sources reported the same information or video or photos are available to check the validity.

Crowdsourcing techniques are useful, but imperfect. Participants of the workshop voiced their concern for the possibility that someone could generate false information multiple times under different names. The Louisiana Buck Brigade's website is limited in that there is no way to distinguish if the posts are created by a professional or by a citizen journalist, and the labeling of reports as "verified" is misleading.

While the benefits of giving the public a voice had added depth for the oil spill coverage, precautions need to be taken when respectable news organizations use crowdsourcing. CNN fortunately has made the line very clear on its iReport site. Upon arriving on the website, a disclaimer pop-up box states "iReport is the way people like you report the news. The stories in this section are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post. Only ones marked 'CNN iReport' have been vetted by CNN."

What questions arose from the use of crowdsourcing during the Gulf oil spill?

Tompkins concluded the seminar by listing questions news organizations must consider when using nontraditional methods of reporting:

1. When using social networking sites, what should be the newsroom's protocol and guidelines for using information?

2. What knowledge is needed by professionals for running a citizen reporting map?

3. What kind of warning is provided for readers that the reports from the public have not been confirmed by professionals? What is assumed about the public's understanding concerning crowdsourced information?

4. Would a rating system measuring the past reliability of a poster be useful?

5. Should professionals and citizen journalists be allowed to post anonymously?

During a different workshop, Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness, reminded journalists of some very basic guidelines to consider while using technology to report on crises:

1. Be more tolerant of uncertainty: Information is imperfect. In a crisis, government officials nor citizens will not have the full range of the story. Reporters interviewing officials should strive for "as much clarity as possible, but they should also be tolerant of the answer 'I don't know' if it's followed by a promise that the official will find out the answer at some point." Likewise, journalists should not accept reports from eyewitnesses as truth until they have been vetted.

2. Dig for deeper context: Government officials are likely to give a "laundry list" of what has been done on the situation. Journalist are urged to not accept this list on face value, but rather investigate if the actions taken matches the need created from the crisis. "Compare the need against what they say they are doing." Redlener suggested journalists ask: "What are we doing, what do we really need to be doing and what's the gap?" When using crowdsourcing, is there a disconnect between the reports of the government and its people?

3. Find evidence to support anecdotes: When using citizen journalists, it is critical to remember that "anecdotes are not data." The presenter refers to a story in which a child got a rash from waters contaminated from the oil spill. "The spill could be related, but it may not be. Look for concrete evidence, Redlener said, rather than covering stories about what people think is going on. Ask who is providing the data and whether it's been verified."

(The full version of points to consider while reporting on a crisis can be read by following this link)

The Gulf oil spill provides an excellent case study for how crisis reporting is developing with the use of new technological tools. It is important to takeaway from this occurrence the need for technology to be an "added value" instead of a replacement of traditional reporting. Multimedia tools cannot replace the analysis and context added by professional journalists. Crowdsourcing gives professionals an extra angle to discover scoops on stories, yet vetting the information is required to maintain credibility. Journalists can start with searching for disconnects between reports from eye witnesses verses government officials. Additionally, news outlets need to be forthcoming to their audience concerning the methods for aggregating news by making clear distinctions of the credibility of sources.

Sources: Pew Research, Poynter Online