Jack Dorsey on ProPublica's Experimental Journalism

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Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Twitter

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ProPublica, investigative journalism nonprofit

I discovered ProPublica about two years ago and became interested in it right away because of its mission: To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism. It’s independent, it’s nonpartisan, and it’s powered mainly by philanthropy. ProPublica actually measures success by whether it sparks real-world change. This was a new take on a business model that I hadn’t really thought a lot about.

The most recent ProPublica story that stood out to me was the publication of the audiotape of immigrant children being held in a US Customs and Border Protection facility. There have also been a number of stories on wrongfully convicted folks that have prompted cases to be reopened.

Tweet by @jack on 8/8/18:
“We certainly have a lot of work to do to help journalists do their jobs better. That’s our intent. Help with reach, balance, and economic incentives. We’re behind on those last two.”

I’ve watched how they use Twitter’s technology. Twitter’s superpower is conversation; it’s carrying the chatter. So traditionally, journalists write a few characters and tweet a link to their article and that’s it. But ProPublica threads the key parts of an article, so you end up with a thread that’s 10 tweets long. We asked them why they do that and they said, “We’re going to meet people where they are. They’re coming to a service that is focused on brevity, so we need to translate our stories into that format.”

It’s a creative use of a technology that doesn’t intuitively seem to fit with traditional journalism. That’s definitely more of a risk if your business is based on advertising and sending people to your site. But ProPublica has been doing this for over 10 years. And I think there’s a lot for us to learn in terms of what that means for media. A donation-driven news outlet may seem extreme, but it’s important right now to experiment. This is an experiment that’s done quite well. —As told to Lauren Goode

This article appears in the October issue. Subscribe now.

MORE FROM WIRED@25: 2008-2013

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• Opening essay by Clive Thompson: The dawn of Twitter and the age of awareness
• Jennifer Pahlka and Anand Giridharadas: Less elite philanthropy, more democracy
• Elizabeth Blackburn and Janelle Ayres: Germs gone good
• Kai-Fu Lee and Fei-Fei Li: Bringing humanity to AI
• Kevin Systrom and Karlie Kloss: Closing the gender gap

Join us for a four-day celebration of our anniversary in San Francisco, October 12–15. From a robot petting zoo to provocative onstage conversations, you won't want to miss it. More information at www.Wired.com/25.