I’m spending a couple of days with community newspaper folks at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, and I led a discussion this afternoon about questions that make journalism more social.
I threw out a few topics to chew on, and one of them was this:
Where, offline and online, are people in your community talking to each other about what’s going on in town?
It’s easy to talk about online conversations (and boy, do I spend a lot of time doing that). But I also really love talking about what’s happening offline. Face to face, eyeball to eyeball. Over coffee, beer or sports. Over shared interests, shared geography or just an accidental shared location.
Wherever the public is gathered, journalists have an opportunity to be listening. They also have an opportunity to be distributing content customized for that specific gathering, situation or news need.
Here’s what I heard from community journalists today about where in their towns people frequently discuss community life. What would you add?
- Lumberyards
- Sports events (youth and high school)
- Beauty shops and barbershops
- Churches
- Gyms
- Coffee shops
- Bars
- Cultural events
- Meetings
- Post offices
- Chamber functions
- Grocery stores
- Courthouses
- Neighborhoods
- Funerals
- Work
- Standing in line anywhere
Joy Mayer 