Neighborhood news has never had its fair share of coverage in the mainstream press. Local papers do their best to report local stories-both news and features-but much is missed. Beyond the sensational stories, little is written about everyday folk who provide the energy, chaos, rhythm and texture of community life.
A major reason for this oversight is that coverage seldom comes from reporters with intimate knowledge of these communities. Thanks to the internet, that glaring omission can be eliminated. What if there was a place in cyberspace where journalists could post ideas and observations before they became full-fledged stories? What if they could join into a dialogue with other journalists about these posts, honing and expanding their original ideas? What if citizens could weigh in as the stories evolved? And what if stories developed from this shared process ultimately appeared on the site?
Writing New York: Posts from the Boroughs and Beyond is an experiment in achieving this type of social and community media. Written by Feature Article Writing students in the Baruch Journalism Program as a class blog, the site is a space where students can record impressions and observations and share information as they report stories on their neighborhoods. Organized into five community teams based on the boroughs and beyond, the groups each post weekly, creating a site that serves multiple purposes: as a resource for both classes, a vehicle for conversation between classmates and the larger blogisphere community, and as a hotbed of fresh ideas that will naturally lead to original neighborhood stories.
This site acknowledges that bloggers are an important part of the media landscape.
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