Last week Sunlight kicked off the new year with a slew of fresh reporting on the influence of Super PACs in the busy Republican primaries. Be sure to check in on our new Super PAC cheat sheet for updated reports on who is supporting or opposing candidates.

Keenan Steiner took an early tally of Super PAC spending after the Iowa caucus and found at least $13.1 million doled out by many groups run by former aides of candidates who won't have to reveal their donors until January 31st. Sunlight's Lindsay Young profiled the pro-Santorum Red White and Blue PAC while Bill Allison checked out a pop-up PAC called Leaders for Families that was created a week before the Iowa caucus and will likely close-up shop. Follow all our Reporting coverage on Super PACs here.

Sunlight's Super PAC coverage earned the attention of a number of major media outlets including NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle and the following segment on the PBS Newshour:

Watch Are Super PACs Living Up to Supreme Court's Intentions? on PBS.

This Feb. 2nd Newshour segment is from before Tom Daschle dropped out, but the discussion regarding the revolving door and President Obama's reliance on Washington insiders between Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Melanie Sloan and lawyer Kenneth Gross is well worth watching. It starts at around the 5:00 minute mark.

Earlier I had posted about the Youtube Challenge for citizen journlists.  Well the winner is in, Arturo Perez did an excellent video on Camphill, Calif., a community where adults with developmental disabilities work and live together.  Browsing the entries you can see how journalism is changing and there is a need for citizens to fill in where MSM can’t.  Media Shift has an great write up about the event and the videos that stood out to him.  I think the last paragraph says it all:

“But for independent journalists like (Arturo) Perez, monetization is not a necessary component for success. For those who are just starting out in the industry, it's a chore to just get noticed, and over the past few years we've seen several examples of online video stars -- who started out making videos for free -- getting snapped up by major media organizations.

In a world crowded with journalism and film school grads, the online video giant (YouTube) may serve as a way to rise above the cacophony of aspiring journalists and take control of your own career path.”

With main stream media entering in a crisis that has effected quality and extent of coverage it is great to see that the new generation of journalists  still want to tell stories.  The people who participated in this contest will be telling stories for years to come because of the internet, despite the challenges.

(h/t Simon Owens)