Recently I was subjected to Bee Movie again (my 7-year-old had the remote) and it reminded me of several very interesting articles about bees. The most recent describes the insect's apparent affinity for mathematical word problems. From that article, (in Discover, here: http://tinyurl.com/38vvbgf) you can buzz right over to '20 Things You Didn't Know about Bees,' also from Discover. (Here: http://tinyurl.com/23sscy)
In both cases, you can bee sure the reading has a point. (Ouch!)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Hyperlocal Media: the good, the bad, and the huh?
Hyperlocal media is a cool new phrase. But it's not new, and I'm not convinced it's all that cool.
Every employer, neighborhood association, or PTA that ever had an internal newsletter - or an employee-centric intranet - has a handle on hyperlocal media.
Enter Patch.com, a newish product from AOL. Patch claims to be something new in journalism; it aims to be a complete online news source for one zip code at a time.
I'll give Patch this: its editors are qualified journalists, and the ones I've read can write, well.
That said, a 'complete' news source needs more than one contributing editor; it needs more than one perspective on what constitutes news and where and how to gather and disseminate it. News should be, by definition, worth reading. Even when you're covering "news" in a single zip code, every dog lost/cat found isn't newsworthy. Of course, many Patch sites have several contributors. Unfortunately, most of them are sending in press releases about rummage sales and library story hours.
Your local Patch may be worth reading, don't get me wrong. And for the record, I love dogs and libraries. (Full disclosure: Cats are OK. I don't do rummage sales.)
But didn't societies create newspapers to see a little further than their own backyards? I may not think I need to know today's Euro or Yen valuation, it would behoove me to think about it occasionally. But I sure love reading my local paper to find out what's happening in neighboring school districts, nearby cities, the state capital - I could expand, but you get the point.
Hyperlocal media surely has a place on the great, big, WorldWideWeb. But even hyperlocal news deserves unbiased, professional treatment. Patch doesn't appear to offer that, but it's still young...we won't know how it will 'grow up' for several years.
SportsInk.com is a site with a similar idea (and some important differences) that's grown quickly in Northeast Ohio. SportsInk covers high school sports in the greater Akron/Canton (OH) area. In that way it's hyperlocal. It's also all but off the hook when it comes to many of those balanced-reporting type questions. It's not just journalism; it's sports journalism.
So what? How good or bad Hyperlocal Media is allowed to get is largely up to you, the readers. Are you tuning in to hyperlocal sources? Will you continue? Speak up. (Folks in the business call that UGC. You can call it whatever you want - I call it posting a comment, and yours are most appreciated.)
~~~~What are you reading?~~~~~
Every employer, neighborhood association, or PTA that ever had an internal newsletter - or an employee-centric intranet - has a handle on hyperlocal media.
Enter Patch.com, a newish product from AOL. Patch claims to be something new in journalism; it aims to be a complete online news source for one zip code at a time.
I'll give Patch this: its editors are qualified journalists, and the ones I've read can write, well.
That said, a 'complete' news source needs more than one contributing editor; it needs more than one perspective on what constitutes news and where and how to gather and disseminate it. News should be, by definition, worth reading. Even when you're covering "news" in a single zip code, every dog lost/cat found isn't newsworthy. Of course, many Patch sites have several contributors. Unfortunately, most of them are sending in press releases about rummage sales and library story hours.
Your local Patch may be worth reading, don't get me wrong. And for the record, I love dogs and libraries. (Full disclosure: Cats are OK. I don't do rummage sales.)
But didn't societies create newspapers to see a little further than their own backyards? I may not think I need to know today's Euro or Yen valuation, it would behoove me to think about it occasionally. But I sure love reading my local paper to find out what's happening in neighboring school districts, nearby cities, the state capital - I could expand, but you get the point.
Hyperlocal media surely has a place on the great, big, WorldWideWeb. But even hyperlocal news deserves unbiased, professional treatment. Patch doesn't appear to offer that, but it's still young...we won't know how it will 'grow up' for several years.
SportsInk.com is a site with a similar idea (and some important differences) that's grown quickly in Northeast Ohio. SportsInk covers high school sports in the greater Akron/Canton (OH) area. In that way it's hyperlocal. It's also all but off the hook when it comes to many of those balanced-reporting type questions. It's not just journalism; it's sports journalism.
So what? How good or bad Hyperlocal Media is allowed to get is largely up to you, the readers. Are you tuning in to hyperlocal sources? Will you continue? Speak up. (Folks in the business call that UGC. You can call it whatever you want - I call it posting a comment, and yours are most appreciated.)
~~~~What are you reading?~~~~~
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