There is much talk about the declining number of working (that is, “paid”) journalists and how it will have a negative impact on our ability to understand the world we live in clearly. Hard to disagree with that notion.
There is also a lot of discussion about how “community” journalism will be required to pick up some of the slack of those missing reporters, but that it will be inferior journalism. Not so fast. There are plenty of cases where the second kind of storytelling works just fine when compared to the “big boys” of journalism.
Need an example? Look no farther than today’s Denver Post, where writer John Mossman did a perfectly good job on a story about how the Denver Office of Economic Development helped organize a “cash mob” at The Bookery Nook in northwest Denver. Truth be told, though, the Post (and the rest of Denver media) got a heads-up on the cash mob from the city, so at times “There was more media here than customers,” the store owner told the Post.
On the other hand, the Post’s “little brother (sister?)” publication, YourHub, had a good story about how Hooked on Colfax raised more than $15,000 to expand its coffee shop/bar through Kickstarter, the web fundraising site. My guess is that was a bigger financial impact than the cash mob and YourHub reporter Joe Vacarelli had the story alone.
The idea of this post is not to say one reporter “beat” the other reporter. Instead, it’s a reminder that there are a lot of interesting stories at the “community” level that are worth writing and reading.
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