Regular readers of this blog know that I actually live in Adrian, MI.  And it has been fascinating from this somewhat distant perch to follow the unfolding story of Nevaeh Buchanan.  And one of the most fascinating aspects of the story is the way in which it is illuminating the changes in news coverage in Monroe.

Amber Alerts, of course, are instantaneous.  And area residents immediately turned to the internet to learn of developments.  And, at least initially, they found very little.  The timing of the initial reports during the Memorial Day weekend seemed to leave the Monroe Evening News flat-footed.  Several participants on the Monroetalks forums commented that it was dozens of hours before the MEN had much coverage.  During that gap in the coverage, residents began posting news links from Detroit, Toledo and national news sources on the Monroetalks forums.

The paper recovered from this initial slowness with a good deal of grace.  In addition to regular in-paper reporting, it has now become normal to see MEN staff, most especially Paula Wethington, posting news links to the forums and monitoring chat room content well into the night.  The coverage since the initial burst of news has been quite good.  But it will be interesting to see in the future how the MEN approaches high-demand breaking local news.

The story has also put the spotlight on the nature of information within internet forums.  During the past week, it has not been unusual to see 30+ registered users and 75+ guests on the Amber Alert thread at Monroetalks.  That has to be record traffic.  And it has come with the usual forum mix of good, up-to-the-minute experiential reports and god-awful unsubstantiated rumor-mongering.  Forums can help to inform, but they can also add a charge to a community that already has a bit of a hothouse feel.

Traffic at Monroetalks has been so heavy that the site has crashed on several occasions and been slow to load at other times.  And this use of the internet has probably changed the story itself.  The large turnouts for the Kmart-based citizen search and prayer vigils are likely the result of instantaneous communication across forums and other new media sources.  Kathy and I have even received Facebook requests for groups dedicated to the search for Nevaeh.  “News” about the story is moving at lightning speed.

Now, we are seeing this story transition from a local and regional story to one with national scale.  This brings its own set of issues.  How will this expanded coverage impact law enforcement agencies?  Will the parties involved be treated fairly?  How will the community be portrayed in the national media?

I have a feeling that we will look back on this story as an important moment in the development of local news coverage.

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