A Bay Area Hacks/Hackers demo night at Stanford previewed some of the journalistic innovations Knight Fellows are pursuing this year.

Knight Fellows are 20 journalists from around the world who spend an academic year at Stanford, exploring and testing their ideas for rethinking news and information. Five of the fellows gave demos of their work – which ranged from a mobile news tip and verification system to developing augmented reality news experiences.

Their work is part of a dramatic shift the Knight Fellowships has made in its program to meet the challenges facing journalism. Previously, the program offered fellows a sabbatical from the deadlines and pressures of a newsroom. The 2011 fellows are the second class to pursue projects focused on journalistic innovation, entrepreneurship or leadership with the intent of producing a wide variety of tangible results – from journalism start-ups to new approaches to newsgathering that can be deployed in existing media organizations.

Hacks/Hackers co-founder Burt Herman was a 2009 Knight Fellow.

Learn more about the fellows’ projects in this video by Knight Fellow Di Pinheiro: