The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation will grant the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) $30,000 to support Debatepedia in 2009. The grant marks a major stride for Debatepedia and its mission.
The Foundation and Debatepedia share a common mission to address a challenge in the journalism industry: Arguments in public debates are scattered across thousands of newspapers, magazines, journals, and other web resources around the world. There is no place where citizens can view all the pro and con arguments and quotations in a public debate and fully deliberate. This is compounded by the fact that the media and journalism industries seem distracted from the substance of public debates, providing incomplete information to citizens whom desire to develop fully-informed positions.
Debatepedia aims to solve these problems. Founder Brooks Lindsay says, “we are adapting Wikipedia’s model to the mission of centralizing all pro and con arguments and quotations in every public debate on Earth into a single encyclopedia. Every debate article is designed specifically to optimize the deliberations of the citizen, expert, or leader. It is tragic how poorly media and journalism industries have done in fostering such public deliberation. Debatepedia offers a comprehensive solution.”
Ethics and Excellence in Journalism President Bob Ross says, “The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation is proud to support Debatepedia. The site is innovative, informative and provides a great resource for journalists and citizens alike.”
