A couple of months ago I signed up as a local blogger to the Newcastle Journal’s Your Place regional blogging project. It’s created a network of 22-local micro sites each of which are fed with content by local bloggers.
Clay Shirky, Seth Godin, and others have spotlighted this approach as a means of breathing life into regional media. But I’ve very quickly identified a flaw in the model of using bloggers to contribute to local media properties.
In local communities bloggers can’t be outspoken and risk causing offence. I’m sitting on at least two cracking stories that as a journalist I wouldn’t hesitate to run, but as a blogger living in the community I’m staying well clear of through fear of pissing off my neighbours.
What’s the answer?
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Good question…..and you answered it yourself really. We need journalists who are brave enough to expose stories when for the public good without protecting their social life / neighbours….bloggers are never going to replace that role IMO. The skillset is totally different – you need to be trained, brave and hungry for career success to succeed as a local journalist, to succeed as a local blogger you need a community interest and time on your hands. Very different roles to fill.
This issue has been particularly close to home (literally) for me over the last week. Local bloggers need to think hard about what they want their blog to do in the community – whether it is to replicate a news organisation on a micro-scale or promote community activity and involvement.
My blog has been up for one week only and one of the biggest problems which has already occured for me (a problem which can also be an advantage) is it is likely some of the locals know who you are and, most importantly, where you live. This does then limit the type of stories you can effectively cover – and definitely changes the way you approach them in terms of reporting how you normally would as a journalist protected by security and legal protection which comes with a newspaper office.
This is an issue which hasn’t really been raised much in discussions about hyper-local because many people are celebrating this form of local journalism without considering the heightened dangers it may cause for the local journalist. You don’t just get angry readers on the phone – you get them knocking on your own door.
It is not a question of being brave about exposing stories or not – it’s about realising what you can and cannot do in your role as a local blogger – even if you have the training, ambition and drive to be a local reporter.
We don’t have so much of this issue on The Lichfield Blog ’cause we’re staying impartial but we still have concerns about what we have on the blog because we have no legal backing and no money to fall back on if something went horribly wrong.
It highlights the need for some sort of effort towards helping hyperlocal bloggers to figure out how to deal with these issues. I don’t agree that a ‘pure’ blog (i.e. opinion and commentary) can compete with local media but I think other hyperlocals can make a serious impact but for that to happen these questions need answering.
I can see the argument, but local journalists don’t exist in a vacuum, many of them are local people too, and it’s not difficult to find out where a journalist lives if you’re that way inclined.
I guess with hyper-local blogging, you’re dealing with a much smaller area and the risks are potentially greater, and there’s also the fact that you’re alone and don’t have the backup of your employer.
It’s also probably one of the reasons why some local bloggers choose to stay anonymous…
“publish and be damned”
Go anonymous.
This post reminded me of Hannah’s story, she had had to deal with an angry neighbour on her doorstep unhappy with a post (through no fault or indiscretion on her part, I might add). The incident made us both think on the fundamental difference between a local journalist and a local blogger. The latter is far more likely to be known by the community and they do not have the protection of a publication they’re working for who are responsible for its content, they are the publication.
I do not feel this necessarily highlights a flaw, merely a need for a different mindset and approach as a hyperlocal blogger – when you write about people, keep in mind you’re likely to see them in the shops later that day so setting out to expose or upset them is perhaps unwise.
However, if you’re a blogger embedded within your community this should mean you’re working with them towards tackling issues, creating solutions and telling stories about the area and recording that process in the public domain, rather than reporting on stories which you may have no personal connection with. Also, as part of the community you have their trust and need to respect that – you’re not the person who a community go to when they feel ready and prepared to make a consciously public announcement, you’re part of the conversation on the journey towards that place.
Of course, if there is some deep-rooted corruption that needs exposing then perhaps that is the time to involve local media or utilise tools such as http://helpmeinvestigate.com/ or http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/. Or as others have suggested, blog anonymously (http://pitsnpots.co.uk/ use the author ‘Pits ‘n’ Pots reporter’ when the writer doesn’t want to be personally attributed). But those around you truly committed to the community (and most people do want their neighbourhood to be the best it possibly can) will support you in highlighting and fixing its flaws.
A hyperlocal blogger is not a journalist – you’re not looking to get the scoop on ‘cracking stories’, you’re working with the community you’re a part of and empowering it by giving it a voice.
@nicky But Hannah is using her site specifically as an outlet for her journalism. She’s authoring news pieces using journalistic rhetoric. She’s doing soft and hard news. So hyperlocal blogs are different from local news blogs then?
@Steve, if you are sitting on the stories because you don’t want to piss your neighbours off but would have published without hesitation when you were being paid by ‘Big News Corp Inc’ what is your fear?
The neighbours coming round to ‘have a word’ because you have upset them
or
The could be financial implications which ‘Big News Corp Inc’ would have stood for you
A story is a story and I can’t see what the difference is whether you are working for ‘Big News Corp Inc’ or emptying bins for a living. The outcome is going to be pretty much the same isn’t it?
@dave See your point and you’re right, it’s all quite subjective – there can be hyperlocal news blogs or hyperlocal cats blogs a la http://www.meowseley.co.uk/. But I’ve found they are often part of a community and local news and information of the area is just an element of what they do – they are also often a space to motivate and effect action or change of some sort, be that physical/political/perceptions/whatever.
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Tell us what the stories are, and we’ll tell you what to do.
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Nick G makes some good points. I have eclectic reflections
I think there is a need to reflect on “hyperlocal”. Does that mean the Evening Standard or the Lower-Twisleton-under-Piddle village paper? Jeff Jarvis’ recent models from CUNY suggest that “ultralocal” may actually mean “regional” or “metropolitan” in some quarters.
>The skillset is totally different – you need to be trained, brave and hungry for career success to succeed as a local journalist, to succeed as a local blogger you need a community interest and time on your hands.
I think that is a false dichotomy, and that anybody can combine the roles and skills however, and whenever, they want. Do I have to be interested in what anybody decides is “success” for my local site, or perhaps it is not for anybody to set up criteria?
I’d encourage local bloggers to evaluate themselves on their own terms in their own context, though I’d certainly encourage them to take a vigorous and campaiging approach to scrutiny of their local politicians – since that role is available in spades as the local commercial media withdraws.
I’m wondering – but haven’t put it systematically yet – that “trained journalists” are perhaps trained out of a whole set of skills and a mindset which are native to bloggers, which may be crucial for one type of ultralocal site.
Is one strand of local blogging is about building (I would say rebuilding) life in a community, and you can’t do that by flying in with a newspaper and dropping a story from 30,000 feet. Is the possibility of having someone annoyed turn up on your doorstep a necessary risk for a local publication which is truly local? Can a publication *be* part of local life without that risk?
And is that a competitive edge that local blogs will have over less local newspapers?
As a final note, I think that anonymous reporting – unless there is a local trusted brand which lends an integrity to counterbalance the anonymity – is a dangerous game editorially.
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Really interesting story.
Having just started as community manager for a Northcliffe Meda local site in Bristol (Redland People) and having run my own neighourhood blog for 4 years, I agree these are real issues.
The complexity is heightend when you have a family who are integal members of the neighbourhood.
At Redland People, we only cover soft news, but I agree that an independent blogger may want to push the boat out at times – as I did when a local youth was arrested for manufacturing a suicide vest, and I broke the story about his school background.
Food for thought, thanks.
Surely as blogs are still not covered by the press complaints commission that they are the opinions of an individual and you will be ok, unless what you are saying is libelous!? (I am not a media lawyer)
Yes hyper local news sites might be on a sticky wicket, but it is an interesting debate and again an area where the legislation has not caught up with the technology / web.
I would be interested to know of any liable suits that are currently ongoing with local bloggers?
A particularly good example is the Bristol Blogger (anonymous) who has a no holes barred style and has avoided prosecution to date. (as far as I am aware).
However, ultimately it is all about community and contacts. You have to build bridges in a community to get to the best stories. Burn them at your peril…
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