|
Touching
the Community – Outside
Traditional
Media
Jack Driscoll, Editor-in-Residence, MIT Media Lab Suzanne McBride, Co-editor, Creating Community Connections Keith Graham, Associate Professor, University of Montana School of Journalism
"It's
no surprise
to anyone in this room that citizen journalism is now a rising
force. What is surprising is how long it's been germinating out there without
too much notice."
More recently, Driscoll said he wanted to try citizen journalism in a small town: Rye, N.H., a small sea coast village he and many retirees call home. "It's like starting a bridge club. You put the word out and people come, you have a meeting and soon you are more concerned about the quality of the content than the quantity of people showing up." Rye Reflections is the result – a monthly journal of major local news stories, features, poetry, opinion.
What kind of major local news stories? A Nor'easter swept through town in May 2007, sending waves crashing over fishing shacks and homes. Rye Reflections set up three slide shows featuring 70 citizen-contributed photographs of the storm.
Editorial decisions at the site are made by consensus and
each story is ready by three people before it is published. "Our staff consists of a former airline stewardess,
auto dealer, an administrative assistant who worked at CIA, 3 teachers, a
principal, a day care supervisor and on and on." The group meets monthly and publishes the first Thursday of
every month.
Regarding the future, Driscoll hopes that Rye Reflections
will spawn other similar sites. "Will
we make a connection with a daily newspaper in the next town? Who knows? Surely the rise of citizen journalism groups has to raise
the question about what kind of synergy there should be with existing daily
papers and their Web sites ... I leave you to think about that."
"These are not
multiple-source stories. It took me a while to say that's okay; it's not
libeling anyone. I had to change
my thinking about that."
And in Chicago, there's a lot of news that isn't covered. "You will see a lot of stories on the Loop, the Gold Coast, for example if there's a panhandler who robs a shopper." But not so much coverage of African-American victims of crime in their own communities. CreatingCommunityConnections puts college journalism students on neighborhood beats to uncover some of the stories missed by the mainstream media.
They didn't want graphophobia to keep people from contributing, so CreatingCommunityConnections also uses old-fashioned voicemail to expand its coverage. People are invited to record a message or a report up to five minutes long. One caller left a highly entertaining review of a hot dog joint and more than 70 people have posted comments in response.
McBride advised,
"Be pragmatic about what you are going to get from citizen journalists.
You're going to get a lot of great photos of dogs and cats, but not a lot of
people who know they should interview someone on the other side of an issue."
CreatingCommunityConnections also delves into Chicago politics. McBride said the major dailies have only two reporters covering City Council, while her project is committed to covering the committees where all the action takes place. An investigative reporting class made waves with a series about Chicago aldermen who hire their relatives. They broke the story in the widely-read Beachwood Reporter, an example of how new media sites can increase traffic by partnering with more established press.
Another proud moment: Audio & video interviews with undocumented immigrant Elvira Arellano and her 8-year old son, a U.S citizen. Arellano's case became a flashpoint for the immigrant rights movement locally and nationally when she sought sanctuary in a Chicago church to avoid deportation and separation from her son.
CreatingCommunityConnections is learning along the way. "Students are idiosyncratic," said McBride, "They cover what they know and what they're interested in. So there are still many neighborhoods that are not getting covered ... yet." Still, McBride said that she's been to some community meetings where people are talking about posts they've read on her site. In the world of citizen media, that's called payment for your story.
"Too many people living in rural
America go unnoticed. It's important to
teach journalism students what's important to small towns."
Students at the University of Montana School of Journalism helped jump-start the site in the fall of 2006 when they took a three-hour road trip to Dutton and sponsored a town meeting. A whopping 80 people showed up. They surveyed the participants and it turned out that three-quarters have a personal computer at home.
The town librarian said the online newspaper "could be the answer to my prayers" since more folks would come to the library to use computers. Perhaps the local coffee shop could become an internet cafˇ; and the town might even set up a computer room in the senior citizens' center, after all the average age is over 55.
"How do you educate these people to become journalists?" asked Graham. "We put a community reporter's notebook on our site. We tell them how to do some stories, go over ethics, how to approach things. If you're gonna go to city council here are some things to think about." They are also working on templates to help residents post birth announcements, death announcements, weddings. The town librarian has a regular column and the principal also posts the weekly football standings.
Some of DuttonCC's big scoops: Reporting on a controversy that erupted when the principal brought a gun to school (he's also a sheriff's deputy.) Also, school consolidation is an important focus, since some children have to take a 45-minute bus ride to school each day. On the lighter side: Multimedia coverage of the town's biggest annual celebration, Dutton Fun Day.
The News Network's big challenge is that students graduate, so new talent has to be recruited and cultivated and trained over and over again. RNN is set to launch its new site in fall, 2007 in Crow Agency (population 1500). Mainstream media in Montana are trying to figure out how to respond to theses changes in the media landscape.
But
back in Dutton, residents are certain the Dutton Country Courier will have
long-term positive affects on the community.
Graham said the
town produces a lot of wheat and meat, but doesn't have it's own market. The
Mayor told him hopefully, "maybe after this site starts, someone will come
and build a grocery store."
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Veteran journalist Jack Driscoll
Suzanne McBride
Keith Graham
