SF News Hub/Seeking the Truth project
Without America’s watchdogs how will citizens make sound voting decisions?
This documentary "Seeking the Truth" and interactive website, SFNewsHub, examine the decline of America’s newspapers and how the loss of reporters negatively impacts a democracy. Using social media and film, we are proactively engaging the public in this discussion.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Yumi
Last Name
Wilson
Website
Organization
SF News Hub/Seeking the Truth
Country
United States
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
SF News Hub
Organization Website
Organization Phone
415-298-8229
Organization Address
P.O. Box 1165, Pacifica, CA 94044
Organization Country
United States
Your idea
Name Your Project
SF News Hub/Seeking the Truth project
What is your idea? What makes it innovative? Why is it important?
Without America’s watchdogs how will citizens make sound voting decisions?
This documentary "Seeking the Truth" and interactive website, SFNewsHub, examine the decline of America’s newspapers and how the loss of reporters negatively impacts a democracy. Using social media and film, we are proactively engaging the public in this discussion.
Will you launch your idea as a business or non-profit?
Non-profit
Country your work focuses on
United States
What will be the impact of your idea?
The next generation being born will probably never read a newspaper. Journalism is changing rapidly as we are struggling to find a way to keep journalistic integrity in the face of free opinion based “news” online. Who will hold our politicians accountable without qualified journalists watching out for American citizens? How will democracy be ensured? Our “Seeking the Truth” documentary and SFNewsHub website explore these issues through the lens of the San Francisco Chronicle. By listening to media’s top experts, we can create viable solutions to this crisis and move forward ensuring that America has a free and unbiased media.
This is a multi-phase project involving an interactive website: SF News Hub (live since July 2009), a TV length documentary (to be completed by 2011), an educational video for high school students (to be completed by 2011), and a full-length documentary (to be completed by 2012).
Who will help you develop your idea? Why are you the one to make this happen?
The website has just undergone a major re-design and will re-launch in February with the help of two developers and designers, Scott Kindred and Allison Gore. The site will feature a wide variety of neighborhood news, blogs, featured videos from the documentary project, and an interactive map of where journalists are now working in our community. Much of the work is produced by undergraduate students who have yet to publish in major publications. The goal is to inspire young people to decide what news is, and write stories in a way that connect and resonate with younger generations. Through this connection, we can begin to tell stories of our past, and explain why it's important to preserve journalistic integrity.
For "Seeking the Truth," our videographer is Marlo McKenzie, who is an experienced and passionate documentary maker. Among advisory board members are: Bernice Yeung, Pueng Vongs, Shannon Bowen and faculty and staff at San Francisco State University. Not to mention the talented SF Chronicle journalists who are lending us their wisdom through video interviews such as David Perlman, Carl Nolte, Jason Lloren, John Diaz, Bill Pates and more.
How much will it cost to launch your idea? (This can be an estimate)
Key to this project is developing the interactive web component of SFNewsHub, which will cost $3,000 to redesign the site. To completely launch this interactive website complete with social media, it will cost $7,500.
The central piece of this website is the documentary, titled "Seeking the Truth," which seeks to inform viewers why the loss of the local newspapers negatively impact our communities. An amount of $3,000 would cover the cost of the videographer's fees to shoot, edit and produce video clips of six journalists over the course of four months. Currently, it costs about $500 for documentary maker Marlo McKenzie to produce a five-minute video. She is charging me a reduced rate because I started this project in the summer of 2009 with my own funds as a journalism professor. For $1,500, I can pay transcription costs ($800) and the rental of a second video camera ($700), which can be shot by some of our journalism students. Thus, start-up cost of the documentary is $4, 500. The total cost of producing the documentary, during the 2010-2011 year is estimated at $150,000 to $188,000. A detailed budget can be submitted upon request.
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