(via Hypergene Media) From a new textbook Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium comes this pretty interesting concept.
“The idea of an Internet community is something of a radical departure for traditional journalistic thinking. These ‘communities’ may be short-term and topic-oriented. They may not be confined to the geographic areas that have traditionally defined audiences for journalists. They are likely to dissipate once the issue that brought the individuals together fades. On the other hand, they may survive and thrive beyond the control or the participation of the journalist who began them.”
One thing I’ve been working on with the school newspaper kids is coming up with ideas for the Web log site once we get it operational. (Just not enough hours in the day…) We’ve been having some fairly controversial issues come up lately like random drug testing (we’re one of the few schools that does) and overcrowding and stuff, and I keep thinking that an issues Web log would be a cool way to stimulate and archive debate. The usual concerns apply: vetting the participants, reviewing posts, etc. I really wish Manila had a feature that would allow the previewing of comments before posting just like news items. But the idea of “short-term and topic oriented” space for students is pretty appealing, and something that I think would be a great way to inform students and get them participating. So many ideas.
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