Media, Information and Communication Contests: An Analysis

This study from Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisers for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation analyses the changing competition landscape for organisations that are designing and implementing contests to spur innovation. The intent was to use the analysis as a means to inform the designers of the Knight News Challenge (KNC), which seeks ideas for using digital technology to inform geographic communities, and to make it publicly available for other organisations implementing contests for similar purposes.

Analysts explored lessons from the field, documenting the changing competition landscape since the KNC began in 2006-07. They consulted past KNC judges, entrepreneurs, and technologists, as well as undertaking in-depth interviews with representatives from 28 other challenges and learning in more detail the similarities and differences among the challenges’ goals, processes, strengths, and difficulties. Many of the identified competitions focus on using technology to address social problems - global development, global health, support for the Millennium Development Goals, or government transparency. Other competitions focused primarily on developing innovative technology for commercial use.

In general, the analysis found that contests are increasingly being used as a tool to solve some of society’s entrenched problems. In the area of news and information, the number of contests doubled since the launch of the KNC in 2006. The evaluators identified the following seven key structural components to the competitions analysed:

• The challenge goal - what sponsors hope to achieve through the competition;
  
• Marketing of the competition;
  
• Application process;
  
• Judging criteria;
  
• Winners' projects; and
• Supplemental support offered to the winners.

Of the competitions studied, organisations defined problems they aimed to solve in these categories:

1. Innovative journalism/media
   
2. Social change
   
3. Global development
   
4. Technological innovation
   
5. Government oversight and transparency
   
6. Human rights
   
7. Digital learning

Organisations used marketing through focused partnerships, networking outreach, their own and other websites, national and international media coverage, social media channels like bloggers, and targeted advertising like Google ads. Some organisations paired competitions with their own conference to capitalise on the judges’ involvement, draw more people in the field together, and generate greater publicity and attention. Conferences were also used as opportunities for applicants to learn from one another and other conference‐goers, as well as to gain exposure to potential sources of funding. Some competitions partnered with existing conferences that offer them a venue and audience for their final round of judging or an opportunity for their finalists to demonstrate their submissions publicly. Some organisations partnered with universities, non-profit organisations, and for-profit companies.

In the application process, some competitions employed mentoring or feedback to applicants. Public submission with a public comment process was a method used. Another method was mentoring by judge feedback on early submissions to strengthen entries for the following rounds of the competition.

Judging criteria varied; the majority used some form of these criteria: technological innovation, sustainability/viability of the business model, applicants' team experience, social impact, and originality. Judging methods varied also, including some of the following: community input; in-person presentation to judges; in-person presentation to an audience; a public online vote to decide winners in one or more categories.

Winners of the competitions studied included those using mobile applications, those encouraging citizen journalism, those using technology for increasing transparency, and those that used mash-ups (groups of information technology presentations, particularly emphasising social media) for information sharing.

Several competitions emphasised engagement with their winners beyond a financial prize. That might have included coaching from organisation staff members, partnering with venture capital providers, and mentoring from professional journalists. Some organisations brought potential funders to conferences where finalists presented, took on projects proposed by winners, or provided opportunities for public demonstration of technology developments at industry events.

An appendix at the end of the report presents an analysis of each of the individual competitions reviewed.