Power shifting from government, the press
I just returned from a visit to our nation’s capitol (okay, I never really went to the capitol, just to suburban Virginia) , where I attended a seminar on interactive community journalism.
That’s a fancy term for what we do with MonroeTalks.com, our social networking site that is designed to give area residents a place to gather in local cyberspace.
I was there to talk about MonroeTalks.com - why we did it and how we manage it. The answer to the first question is obvious - because we saw a need and decided we’d better fill it before someone else did.
People are aching to connect with others and to be part of a community. With our society changing so rapidly, there’s much less sense of community in the old-fashioned sense. People sit at their computer (or in front of their television) instead of sitting on the front porch with their neighbors.
MonroeTalks.com provides an on-line environment for hanging over the back fence with your neighbors - figuratively speaking.
It’s a very different function than what we’ve traditionally filled at the Monroe Publishing Co. But I suspect it’s only one of many we’ll fill in the future, as our media world changes.
I was struck by one comment by the seminar moderator, Mary Glick of the American Press Institute.
Some of the seminar members were questioning taking newsroom resources away from covering the “news of record” in their towns - like city or county agencies - so they could cover emerging new topics.
Mary said something like this:
“Keep in mind that in our society the locus of power is shifting away from government – to the people. A case in point: Our country is at war, but not with another government – with terrorists – a group of people.”
She didn’t continue to make the obvious next point - that the locus of “information” power also is shifting from our monolithic newspapers of yore to a very pluralistic future with many news voices.
So as journalists we’re living with two shifts – the geopolitical power shifting to the people – necessitating our re-thinking how we cover government in a democracy – at the same time the information power base is shifting to the people - any of whom can start their own blog and/or Web site.
The two shifts are most certainly related.
Anyone can report on city or county or state government on their own blog, on their own Web site. Readers have many, many potential places to look for information. That makes community activists more powerful, and it makes both government and the traditional press less powerful.
We still plan to make the Monroe Evening News the best source of local news and information for many, many years. That’s still our primary focus.
But in the meantime, www.monroenews.com and www.MonroeTalks.com, as well as www.HomesPlusMonroe.com and www.MonroeParent.com and www.Letstalktigers.com are just the beginning of the online sources of information we’ll be providing.
We’re in a race to continue to be Monroe County’s primary source of information - where ever you want to find it.