Building Online Communities

Web video for community reporting has evoloved from raw clips and weak imitations of TV reports to something more unique - using web-based tools to edit short, concise, targeted videos that can be embedded in multiples to enhance articles in a true multi-media style. Mary Angela Bock interviewed me (and featured a photo of my typical video set-up) for her 2012 publication 'Video Journalism: Beyond the One-Man Band' which can be purchased here.

Community journalism has evolved from a one-way presentation of stories, events, photos and editorials to a complicated mix of traditional and new media content that spans multiple platforms using video, photography, social media, crowd-sourcing, blogging, aggregation, story curation and personal branding. As the first Online Editor at The Reporter my job was to not just re-create a print edition on the web, but to combine all these new media elements and create a matrixed dialogue between content creators, readers and sources.

"Reach people where they are."

Readers have moved away from the traditional web site layout (where the home page is considered the equivilant of a newspaper front page) to a linked-based flow driven primarily by social media such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, and many others. The biggest change? Journalism is no longer limited to traditional media - the boundaries are down as municipalities, schools, civic groups, non-profits, local and national businesses, and individuals creating their own 'brand' are producing and posting their own journalistic-style content on their sites and in social media. Traditional media must act as a 'gateway' to this content or they will ignore it at their peril.

Using analytic tools such as Omniture, Chartbeat and Google analytics, web editors also have to be aware of where their audience is coming from and especially how they are consuming media - increasingly through mobile.

Listen to Chris Stanley and Nona Breaux talking about community journalism on the web during an appearance on the WNPV raido program "Comment Please."

Selected Projects

Ben Franklin Project: Re-imagining the traditional newsroom using all open-sourced web tools and wide-ranging community participation. Created entire 'shadow' sites using these tools to produce both web and print products.
IdeaLab: Original member of company-wide team charged with finding, testing and training others in the use of new web tools and digital workflows
Blogging program: Recruited and trained over 25 bloggers for an active partnership with the news site. The training included content creation, management, and monetization tools.