I'm helping with an experiment in Northfield, Minn., with a working title of "Representative Journalism." The goal: See if we can create a system for local or topical newsgathering so compelling and useful that users will help pay for it directly. Kennesaw State University's Len Witt has just obtained a $51,000 grant to start to work on this problem -- with a little bit of help from Chris Peck and me, and a lot of help upcoming on the ground in Northfield, Minn., from a citizen team led by Griff Wigley.
For now, we are calling the concept, "representative journalism" (but realize that's not nearly perfect or catchy). The idea is to create a collaborative (maybe profit, maybe nonprofit) infrastructure to which local social-networks-in-formation can turn for journalism expertise. The RepJ mothership will provide technical, business, fund-raising, financing, marketing, advertising and ethical guidance to the local RepJ organization so that it can hire one or more reporters to cover the local affinity group's issue or passion. It could be geographic like a high school or topical like "the environment." Importantly, we envision the community's journalist reporting to (as in employment) an experienced editor either on a direct or dotted-line basis. We see this as providing the assurance that the work the reporter does conforms to journalistic ethics and principles -- and provides the reporter with cover from being manipulated, as a PR person might be, by the affinity group that actually pays his/her salary or free-lance fees.
There are many issues with this experiment -- some ethical, some practical. The biggest is whether communities will be willing to sustain the cost of semi-pro journalism to cover the passions which bind them. The representative journalist must be unusually focused on engaging with citizens (online and F2F) before, during and after posting of a stories. The journalist reports to a respected, experienced editor.
See the: RepJ blog site (for updates). (Photo: RepJ team at Northfield radio station on March 13)
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