The Crier, The Square, and The Expert
The three primary roles your local website should play
While the convergence of news, blogging, and historical perspective may be a relatively new phenomenon, the result is a natural culmination of three traditional spheres moving closer together: the town crier, the town square, and the town expert. (Follow the link for a pretty stellar Venn diagram.)
Steve Yelvington believes that local news sites tend to invest too many resources into the town crier model, neglecting the other two fields:
Journalists tend to gravitate to only one of these roles: the town crier, the quaint colonial-era village character who walks around ringing a bell telling you what’s happening. It comes naturally. This is why 24×7 coverage teams and the “continuous news desk” concept take root so quickly when newsrooms suddenly awaken to the urgency of taking the Internet seriously.
But the other roles aren’t secondary. They’re coequal, and they’re grossly neglected by most local news websites.
As far as Chattanooga is concerned, the town expert model is desperately needed. Finding information outside of “most recent events” requires a trip to the library when it should just be a Google search away. Incidentally, revamping the library has been a big project during the last 2 years, but accessibility has taken a backseat to marketing.
HT: John Hawbaker
smijer wrote:
So…
should someone host a wiki - say for instance chattawiki.org - would concerned citizens take up the tasks being neglected by local news media and make a topical “expert” source site?
Posted on 17-Feb-09 at 12:53 pm | Permalink
David Morton wrote:
Possibly, though I’m not sure that would be the best route. When I’m looking into the background of a local story, one of the least likely places I’ll end up is the Chattanooga Wikipedia article. (Incidentally, that article reads like it was written by a staffer from the Chamber of Commerce)
For that reason, I’m hesitant to say that a standalone wiki will fill the void without some sort of institutional support behind the project.
I’m thinking more along the lines of a large, easy-to-navigate database that is actively maintained with biographies, histories, laws, budget information, events, and so on. It would provide context for the user, and help fill in the blanks when necessary.
Posted on 17-Feb-09 at 2:31 pm | Permalink