journalism journaling - new perspective

In one of my posts several weeks ago I was pondering community journalism and asked if there was a way to build-up communities without producing fluff or omitting part of the story. For example, one of our community web projects tells great stories of development, business openings and the whereabouts of young professionals, http://www.soapboxmedia.com/, yet completely excludes those who haven't contributed, in the eyes of the editors, to Cincinnati's "progress." And really, that's the mission of this site - to paint a picture of all of the action and investment that's transpiring in our city so that residents and outsiders alike have a new view of what Cincinnati is - a bustling city where things happen, not "twenty years behind the times," per Mark Twain.

This format was needed. Like many communities, we were growing tired of the "if it bleeds it leads" competition occurring as our local media watched their profits slide. We were ready for some good news. Note that nothing our daily newspaper has done to slow the decline in readership and revenue has worked. Just this past week, The Cincinnati Enquirer laid off another 101 people as they halted publication of their CinWeekly entertainment piece, http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-18361-enquirer-layoffs-hurt-us-all.html.

Things are in such a shamble.... but it's always dark just before the dawn. We have an opportunity to invent, to craft what what the next wave of journalism should look like. The blog phenomenon is amazing yet blogs tend to hone in on narrow topics, not serve a broader community with varied needs. What's next and what will work?

I met with someone today whose plan for new community journalism adds ingredients to an already complex stew. His first point is that we have to let go of the notion that good news means economic development and rapid change. Of course new events and new things to buy are exciting for Americans and will generally pull an audience. But what about stories that chronicle lesser-known people for the sake of looking at a bigger issue in a new way? Are journalists able to capture the human condition through one simple man in a way that causes us all to ponder the position of our own lives? How are everyday humans uniquely dealing with the issues that connect us all - like health care and raising children? Can we break outside of the right-wrong / free-market - government debate with stories of human history and human potential?

There's no doubt that this thinker has a viewpoint about what makes life and community meaningful and feels strongly about who is under-recognized and who is over-exposed. He's similar to the pro-development publisher in that he's crafting a new narrative that he deems to be important to our culture. Objectivity is not his promise. Yet his story is quite different that that of the development/business community. What is interesting is that he's proposing to tackle the biggest issues of our time by highlighting smaller examples and new insights into how to think about things. This approach would be challenging for writers - it will require a huge degree of curiosity, research into what's already been said and a constant willingness to present something new. The model could be electronic news-magazine. Documentaries and commentary with video and written narrative that spur wiki discussion.

More thought on this later.

In the meantime, I've learned about a blog that surveys the news business and worries of its extinction: http://newsosaur.blogspot.com