Crowdfunded journalism is journalism that is financially sourced by the collection of donations from the general public. Typically, journalists rely on micropayments from ordinary people to finance their reporting. Crowdfunding is typically related to crowdsourcing, because the source of funding is often from a larger third-part group or crowd. The audience can support journalism projects by donating sums of money, or other resources, through popular crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe and Kickstarter. In the early 2010's, there were a variety of crowdfunding sites that only supported journalistic endeavors, but many are since retired due to conflicts of interest, such as Spot.us. Typically, crowdfunded journalism has four different types of donations systems: "Single individuals, Small groups of unaffiliated individuals, Media outlets or organizations, and Public or private institutions such as universities." Characteristics In the rapidly changing field of media, the financial pressures upon newspapers have led to the downsizing of newsroom staff nationwide, with local newsrooms especially hard hit. Journalists have faced challenges because of media concentration, ownership and a technological shift towards news content from the Internet. That decrease has fueled the rise of Crowd-funded Journalism, as a way for journalists to financially stabilize their careers outside of corporate media. Crowdfunded journalism also gives journalists opportunities to create content, outside of mainstream media scope. Crowd-funded journalism fundamentally shakes up what it means to be a news reader: Users can directly fund the stories they care about reading, and writers have a level of independence and freedom to choose specific topics or coverage of events, versus a common company-affiliated newsroom. Public engagement Crowdfunding has been in existence since before the rise of the Web. The idea is that: "Through small donations from the crowd, large projects that no ordinary individual could fund on his or her own can be started." The increase of crowdfunded journalism has altered the way audiences participate and interact with media. Audiences have a more direct, personal connection to their writers and producers, while content producers can receive direct feedback on what is desired. There is also an increase of opportunities for "special projects" and "citizen journalism." Both amateur and professional journalists, with ideas and passions for their specific communities, share a collective of information that actively work as "sourcing." Crowdfunded journalism gives equal opportunity for the general public to participate with their journalistic interests. There are no specific requirements that journalists need to use crowdfunding, or