Crowdfunding Investigative Projects Turns Readers into Editors

In a search for cash to finance investigative journalism projects, an independent Brazilian news agency is trying to turn readers into editors. The idea was greeted with great interest during a panel discussion this week at the four-day, semi-annual Global Investigative Journalists Conference (GIJC2013) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The idea is simple: those who help finance the agency can choose what journalists should investigate. With this concept, Agência Pública raised almost $30,000 from 808 backers for a project called Reportagem Pública (Public Report).

Investigating the Environment to Solve a Murder Mystery

Mark Schapiro’s job is to prevent murders. He is not a cop, nor a judge or a psychological counselor. Actually, Schapiro is an award-winning environmental journalist. Years ago, when Schapiro was collaborating with law enforcement officials in charge of enforcing environmental crimes, it dawned on him: “Whether the murder of an ecological system that supports us, or really, literally, a killing,” Schapiro says, “the core of environmental journalism is investigating murder and stopping it in the future.”