iMediaEthics wrote in February about the new nonprofit site Churnalism.com that allows site visitors to compare UK news articles with press releases.
We asked Martin Moore of the Media Standards Trust, which created Churnalism.com, for more information about the site. The trust works “for quality, transparency and accountability in news on behalf of the public.” Projects of the trust include the Orwell Prize to “highlight and support political writing and journalism,” journalisted.com and churnalism.com, and research reports.
We asked who the trust envisioned the site’s audience to be.
Moore answered by email: “We built this as a public tool so we certainly hope the public will use it. Indeed it relies on people pasting in press releases and point us to sources of press releases. Though we’re conscious that PR and journalists will use it too (as they’re welcome to). What’s been really encouraging is the reaction in this first two weeks. We’ve had over 50,000 unique visitors, thousands of searches, and hundreds of press releases saved.”
Moore explained that the trust has discussed the concept of “tracing articles to press releases and other sources” since 2006, but the 2008 book Flat Earth News and research from Cardiff University kicked the site’s development into action.
The trust started working on the site’s development last spring and created a prototype by the fall. The site was launched Feb. 23.
