Starting where I left off in the post on Citizendium, here are some thoughts from Josh Hallett on why we’ll always need journalists. One of the aspects of NewAssignment.Net that appealed to me was its potential to use citizen journalism in combination with professionals.

It’s about creating a give and take relationship.

The greatest contribution anyone can make to NewAssignment.Net is time. In the Sunlight Foundation’s Congressional Family Business Project, a group of citizens gave a little of their time to report on all 435 members of Congress and their hiring habits. And by sharing the workload they did it did it in two days!

But if you don’t have time, another contribution is money. Distrust for the media is at an all time high, but the need for investigative journalism is as strong as ever. Independent organizations like Sunlight and The Tyee are finding ways to spearhead investigations outside of the regular business model, but to do it they need support from readers who trust them.

Recently The Tyee held a fundraiser to create a fellowship that would sponsor independent journalists as they dig into problems that face British Columbians.

As the Internet has opened up the platform for independent journalism, these fundraisers are not unique. Recently The New Standard reached their goal and will be able to keep their doors open a little longer.

But you shouldn’t think of these donations as charity. It’s an investment. By becoming reader sponsored these organizations gain the freedom to go after the story and not the bottom line. There is a relationship between the journalist and the reader, not just fiscally, but in terms of trust. The donation is a sign of trust and hopefully Tyee, The New Standard and NewAssignment can deliver on that with important and engaging investigations.

NewAssignment.Net will need donations as well. But again, at NewAssignment.Net we value your time to help with ideas and investigations more than money. This is not a project of independent journalists doing work for you, it is a collaboration for all of us.