The journalism element the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel focused on:  Verification.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel executive editor Martin Kaiser and education editor Laura Thompson oversaw the Journal Sentinel's participation in the New Media Enduring Values (NMEV) project.

Martin Kaiser

Verification: Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal Sentinel [2] The goal of this endeavor is to make the Journal Sentinel the "encyclopedia of education for Wisconsin" by putting into the hands of news consumers the tools of verification. The news consumer can go directly to original sources, for example, to test the truthfulness/fairness/comprehensiveness of a news story from his or her own perspective.

What  the Journal Sentinel did:

Created a dedicated space on its Web site [3] pulling together its education news and features.  The site features new storytelling techniques and mechanisms for encouraging reader feedback and contributions. It invites teachers, students, parents and other community members to improve accuracy and completeness by submitting images to the photo gallery, asking questions, and offering their expertise or opinions.  Thirteen community bloggers add a greater diversity of voices to the mix.  Reporters post source documents and databases allowing readers to delve deeper into issues and better judge the quality of the reporting for themselves.

A staff blog [4] capitalizes on reporters’ knowledge and experience to offer additional information and context on stories and engage readers about how the news process works.  An in-house training program in multimedia helped prepare reporters to create podcasts, videos, and interactive quizzes featured on the site.  The page also explains the project to readers and discusses via both text [5]and video [6] the meaning of verification and its importance as a journalistic value.

CCJ's Bill Kovach on Verification:

Verification is what most of us consider the foundation, the beating heart, of journalism.  It is the element that, along with independence, sets journalism apart from all other forms of communication. The history of the idea that people can government themselves supports this conclusion. The word “fact” first appeared in the English language in the 16th century defined as “something that has really occurred or is actually the case; hence a particular truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is merely inferred.

When the first newspapers made people aware of what had “really occurred or is actually the case” and began to spread the ability to read something else occurred:  the broad mass of the people began to assert an active place in their communities. Ordinary people began to actually take part in the public discussion and to question, challenge, amend the information they received. In Scotland this process led to a novel approach to organization of the Presbyterian Church:  the people themselves began to elect the church leaders. What we’ve quickly learned in the world of 24/7 news, of information everywhere all the times, is that verification of what really “occurred or is actually the case” is more important than ever and must be more diligently practiced and seen to be practiced than ever.

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