Community journalism and the world of data

This blog about a Detroit neighborhood has sparked discussion and controversy for its participatory approach to journalism.

We had three guests last week that brought some perspective to today’s world of journalism. Journalism 200 is so much about the fundamentals — AP Style, leads, interviewing, sourcing — that it is helpful to step back every once in a while and view  journalism in its ever-changing forms. Michael Happy, Jonathan Morgan and Aaron Olson helped us step back, leaving current events quizzes and story deadlines on hold, for a little while at least.

On Tuesday,  Michael and Jonathan talked to the class about community journalism. Michael and Jonathan both have very interesting backgrounds, having shared time on the online desks of both The New York Times and The Detroit News. Michael now directs Fox Sports Detroit’s online site, but also maintains the Neighborhood Blog: Going Home at the detnews.com site. This is what Michael and Jonathan talked about for most of the hour they were in class. The blog was started nearly three years ago after Michael did an audio slideshow about his old neighborhood on Detroit’s east side.

Jonathan, now a Ph.D. student at MSU, specializes in community journalism, databases and bringing together complex systems and people to do journalism that goes beyond what is traditionally considered “journalism.” Jonathan combines a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a master’s degree in journalism — making him one of the computer-literate journalists who are so highly sought after by nearly every news organization. His path is one you also might like to explore.

Michael and Jonathan talked about the plusses and minuses of “getting involved” in your reporting, especially as it relates to projects such as the Neighborhood Blog. Jonathan emphasized the need to tell the truth — and that the “truth” doesn’t always mean you have to be totally uninvolved. But he also pointed out how much more difficult it can be to walk that line and “find” the truth when you ARE involved in a story or a neighborhood. There’s more about the Neighborhood Blog in this story in the Columbia Journalism Review.

On Thursday, we had a visit from current J-school student Aaron Olson, who is graduating this spring. Aaron is a design specialist and has also become very involved in the “back end” of creating online sites, including the Spartan JLabs site, which is the site for the online newsroom class, JRN 400. You may be interested in checking out Aaron’s online portfolio and blog. I also highly recommend you follow him on Twitter. I always learn a lot from Aaron, and he seems to see cool new things before anyone else does.

Aaron spoke about data, and how we might view data and its integration with journalism. Some of the sites and resources he mentioned are great ones for you to go back to and peruse. They include:

The Guardian’s Data Store

One person Aaron talked a lot about was Clay Shirky, the  NYU professor, author and Internet philosopher. Aaron shares this from him:

“New digital divide question is, how do we go to people who don’t sense they have permission to speak in public and offer them that permission? And then the other, as you say, is the interest. If there are people who are just uninterested in this stuff, how can you make an experience that’s still satisfying for them as, you know, traditional consumers of media, without making them feel bad for not being the people posting the Flickr pictures of potholes or, you know, adding a comment to an NPR story.” – Clay Shirky (in a 2009 NPR interview).

And some of the other links:

“A Peek Into Netflix Queues” from the New York Times
“Investigate your MP’s expenses” – from the Guardian

http://www.ushahidi.com/
http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
http://www.snowmageddoncleanup.com/main
http://www.patientslikeme.com/
http://www.data.gov/
http://data.gov.uk/