Tempo News: Crowdfunding Journalism, New Way to Get Powerful

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - We understand that the digital age brings a flood of information, now everyone has access to mass communication channels, especially through social media. At the same time, many of us concerned, not all the information floods are beneficial to audiences. The rise of the hoax, fake news and disinformation, make the public lose the grip of what is fact and real.

Mass media must provide solutions. Of course, netizen’s expectation from the media is not a lecture about the importance of verification, nor the one-sided action of raising an issue which is considered crucial by the editor. The media can take a new role by opening an equivalent public space and oriented to the interests of the people.

Therefore, Tempo.co cooperates with change.org and kitabisa.com makes 'Bongkar'. This initiative combines the power of change.org as an online petition site with more than 4 million users with the benefits of kitabisa.com as a crowdfunding site that in 2016 had successfully collected public funds collectively to Rp 61 billion, and integrated it with Tempo.co, an online news site which is part of the investigative journalism tradition of Magazine and Koran Tempo.

"Investigative journalism is crucial to support the function of public accountability and strengthen the democracy. In line with Change.org Indonesia's efforts to initiate, mobilize and win social campaigns, as part of efforts to strengthen democracy," said Desmarita Murni, Change.org's Director of Communications. She hopes this cooperation can raise investigative news that not only takes sides with the public interest but also in the process, driven by the active participation of netizens.

While Alfatih Timur, co-founder of kitabisa.com affirms that journalism not only needs to crowdsourcing in the content way, but also funding. "So journalism is really from public to public," he said. By asking for opinions and funds from the public, said Alfatih, there is validation that the issues raised by the media are interesting and desirable by the community. "We will ensure an easy, quick and transparent donation process to help the program," he said.

Philipus Parera, Head Project of 'Bongkar' who is also Executive Editor of Koran Tempo, affirmed that the crowdsourcing model for this kind of journalism has never been done before in Indonesia. "All this time, the media has always tried to encourage public participation, but this kind of model is just tried for the first time," he said. He believes that netizen has been waiting for the opportunity to participate in determining the media agenda and directly involved in ensuring the continuity of the coverage process.

Here are the steps that must be taken by the netizen to get involved in this 'Bongkar' project:

1. You may choose one of the three issues that are submitted from Tempo editorial for further investigation, via https://change.org/bongkar

The online voting process will run for one month. The issue that gets the most votes will go to the next step of collective funding alias crowdfunding.

2. To provide voluntary funding, you are expected to log in to https://kitabisa.com/bongkar. All funds obtained from there will be managed by kitabisa.com and will be used only for the purpose of covering the issue by Tempo editors.

3. After one month of fundraising is over, Tempo editor will start working. The coverage result will be posted at https://investigasi.tempo.co.

For the first batch, the 'Bongkar' project offers three issues: (1) the disappearance of Jakarta Provincial Government assets, (2) the suffering of commercial sex workers who are victims of human trafficking and (3) the case of torturing circus animals, which is hidden for so many years.

What topic do you choose? You decide: Let's 'Bongkar!'

TEMPO