Center for Cooperative Media Creates Collaborative Journalism Database

Collaboration in journalism now has a home with the introduction of a new database.

The Center for Cooperative Media has created a Collaborative Journalism Database, which launched this year and is a collection of collaborative projects from around the world. Find the database at collaborativejournalism.org.

“We want to help be a hub for catalyzing and sharing knowledge about impactful, meaningful journalism produced by collaborations around the world,” said Stefanie Murray, the Center’s director.

Stefanie Murray

The database was created after Murray saw that many lists and articles about collaborations in journalism had been published before but there wasn’t a cohesive list that people could find.

“We had gathered so much information about collaborative projects and thought that launching a database would be a great way to share all that information in a way that could be kept ongoing in the future,” she said.

The database (as of press time) currently lists 153 projects, more than 800 organizations and more than 150 individuals. The list is constantly growing.

Murray hopes the list can stir more information sharing and better journalism. She also said the database is a valuable tool for journalists looking for information about an ongoing story or for inspiring story ideas.

“We strongly believe that excellent journalism in the future will require journalists and news organizations to collaborate much more with each other and with their communities,” she said. “We hope that our building and promotion of the database, our upcoming 2018 Collaborative Journalism Summit, and additional upcoming research and case studies around great projects will help spur even greater projects.”

Murray said the database is not only for those who are involved in projects or those who want to get involved, but it’s also a tool for those who don’t know much about how these projects work.

“This is new territory for many journalists, and it helps to get an understanding of how others are structuring their projects,” she said.

The Center’s upcoming Collaborative Journalism Summit May 10-11 is another opportunity for those interested to learn more about the project. The summit will be held at Montclair State University in New Jersey. If you have a collaborative project that you’d like to share, let the Center know by emailing info@centerforcooperativemedia.org.

Murray said the Center will keep sharing and keep pushing for collaboration in journalism in the future. “We are continuing to beat the drum about ‘partnerships, not parachutes,’ at the Center.”