About NewsQ

NewsQ seeks to elevate quality journalism when algorithms rank and recommend news articles online. We approach this problem by engaging in design thinking activities in collaboration with technology, journalism, academia, and other communities with the goal of generating resources.

NewsQ grows out of the awareness that, in order to confront the challenge of supporting quality journalism amid decreasing revenues, there is a need for shared definitions, data, and conversations. Through NewsQ’s participatory approach, we hope to promote constructive steps towards solutions. And in this way, NewsQ hopes to contribute to efforts that drive financial support towards quality news and away from disinformation, and misinformation.

NewsQ is an initiative of Hacks/Hackers, which grew out of a collaboration with the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. This initiative was formerly known as the Quality News Project and for a brief period of time as the NewsQA project.

Project Funders and Recognition

The Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, a major supporter of this work over the years, serves as a catalyst for journalism innovation and sustainability by running education programs, events, and communities.

Between 2018 and 2021, NewsQ also received support from the Facebook Journalism Project and Civic, incubated at TED (which became the Healthy Internet Project). The KNoW Science Collaboration received support from WikiCred.

NewsQ received an award from the Computing Community Consortium in 2019.

In 2021-2022, work on the Quality Vaccine Journalism questionnaire was supported by the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator to Hacks/Hackers under the ARTT project.

In addition, Craig Newmark Philanthropies and the Tow-Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at CUNY supported our work related to reliable sources on Wikipedia.

Contributors

A number of contributors have made NewsQ possible, including data providers and advisers.

Data Providers

By providing information that enables exploration and discovery around quality news, contributing organizations and companies make insights possible. Contributing organizations and companies to the NewsQ API have included:

We thank these companies and organizations for their willingness to share data with the project.

Advisers

Over the years, the following organizations have members who served as advisers to the project:

  • Facebook Journalism Project
  • Google News Initiative
  • Healthy Internet Project, incubated at TED
  • MediaWell, Social Science Research Council

The NewsQ Team

Jake Orlowitz, Program Coordinator, Vaccine Reliable Sources Project

Jake Orlowitz is the Program Coordinator for the NewsQ Vaccine Reliable Sources project. Orlowitz got his start improving online information quality by participating in the Wikipedia global movement, going on to found the Wikipedia Library, run the Knowledge Integrity program, and co-organize the WikiCite conference. Since 2008, Jake’s focus has been on the reliability and verifiability of citations and references on Wikipedia, by archiving dead links, making paywalled scholarship accessible, increasing the visibility of high quality sources, and other activities aimed at improving information quality. Jake has written and spoken extensively about the power and pitfalls of crowdsourcing, collaborative knowledge production, and online community organizing.

Nevin Thompson, Communications

Nevin Thompson is a marketing and communications specialist. He serves as the Community Lead of Credibility Coalition, a research community of journalists, researchers, and technologists that fosters collaborative approaches to understanding the veracity, quality and credibility of online information. Until May 2022 Nevin served as both the social media & distribution manager, and as Japan News Editor, for Global Voices, an international community of writers, journalists, and digital activists that aim to translate and report on what is being said in citizen media and journalism worldwide. 

Connie Moon Sehat, Director

Connie leads the News Quality Initiative and is Researcher-at-large for Hacks/Hackers. Connie has focused on the intersections of technology and democratic life for the past twenty years, including the direction of projects like NewsFrames at Global Voices, the New Orleans Research Collaborative, and ELMO (election, human rights, and health monitoring). Her doctorate from Rice University specialized in twentieth century German history, with minor fields in Enlightenment Europe and Modern Japan.

Dr. Sehat’s first job out of college allowed her to develop software for the International Space Station. Most recently, she served as a Senior Fellow for Media, Entertainment and Sport Industries at the World Economic Forum and also has previously worked for The Carter Center, Emory University, and The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Alumni

Humphrey Obuobi • Kate Harloe • MD Momen Bhuiyan • Yemile Bucay • Trust Metrics • Alex Bornhoft • Andrea Bras

Contact Us

If you have questions about the NewsQ project, contact us at:

hello [at] newsQ [dot] net

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Last updated: September 24, 2023