Journalists: "Open the Freezer"

Photo: Howard Schneider, Dean of the Journalism Department at Stony Brook University in New York and former reporter and managing editor with Newsday.

The New England News Forum

Photo: Doug McGill, Journalism professor at Carleton College, former New York Times staff reporter and International Bureau Chief with Bloomberg News


The Community Radio Hour recently attended a one-day workshop sponsored by the New England News Forum. "Sharing the News: Fresh Approaches to Reaching Students and Training Citizens" was held at UMass Lowell on June 28. The NENF is headed by Bill Densmore, a professor of journalism at UMass and the project director/editor of the Media Giraffe project.

I was captivated by the words of two of the speakers, both veteran journalists who have moved into academia: Minnesota-based Doug McGill, formerly with the New York Times and Bloomberg, and Howard Schneider, who did his time at Newsday before founding the journalism school at Stony Brook University in New York.

McGill encourages reporters to "Welcome Xenia" and to "Talk to Strangers," while Schneider insists that his students "Open the Freezer"--referring to the story of a New Orleans Times-Picyune reporter who failed to verify second-hand information about dead bodies with his own eyes.

Thanks to Bill Densmore, who agreed to let me record this event, and thanks to blogger Tish Grier who encouraged me to attend.

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Dishing with Blogger Daryl LaFleur

The Zoning Board of Appeals and the landfill lawsuit, regional waste management alternatives, Citizens United for a Healthy Future and sixties-activist Saul Alinsky, "Poisoning the Well"--should officials attempt to discredit citizens with whom they disagree?




kudos to independent journalists; happy father's day
the zba and the regional landfill, creative thinking about regional waste
planning board member "poisons the well"
Notre Dame Charrette

The Local Buzz in Chrysalis Mode--Saulmon Speaks

Greg Saulmon, editor of the Local Buzz, a free newspaper focusing upon politics, civic affairs, and the arts in western Massachusetts, was initially taken aback when his employer, Mass Publishing, an affiliate of the Springfield Republican, announced that the monthly print edition of the Buzz was being discontinued. The Local Buzz Blog would stay as a location on MassLive. Should buzz-meisters Saulmon, Bill Peters, and Josh Thayer be pounding the pavement in their daddies' wingtips? After sleeping on it and suffering the requisite dark night of the soul, Greg realized that he was was actually being granted an amazing opportunity.

When we spoke with Greg Saulmon on March 2, he had already submitted a proposal to the parent company for reinventing the Local Buzz as a cutting-edge, web-based publication. Details? Well, Greg isn't showing his hand right yet. But he suggested that exciting developments are afoot....

That subject being off the table, we proceeded to have a fantastic discussion about the changing face of journalism and what that might mean to the Pioneer Valley. With Bloggers such as The Northamptonist actually walking the beat, attending meetings, and working the community in real time, should the cubicle-based scribes at the dailies be worried? How can collaborative information-gathering deliver niche information to the community--such as, say, the locations of stores that sell live bait for fishing? Do newspapers really need to employ trained reporters to cover "ice cream socials," or can that type of reporting be off-loaded to the greater community, freeing up newsroom resources to cover hard news? Why are certain newspapers having such a hard time understanding that a website can be much, much more than a simple copy-and-paste from the print edition? Can social networking part the "Tofu Curtain" (AKA the Holyoke Range) that separates the upper valley from Holyoke and Springfield?

Well, Extra, Extra; Read All About It. Wanna Meet The Press? Listen in.

Use either these direct links to download or play in quicktime, or use the embedded flash player to listen directly from this webpage.

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Ed Shanahan is Back!

Retired Gazette editor Ed Shanahan is back from vacation, and his on-line journal Downstreet.net is once again teeming with observation and commentary.

Hugo Chavez, The American Red Cross, Declining American Literacy, Pfizer, the Evisceration of the Great American Newspaper, and the Global Scrap Metal Industry....

The honorable Mr. Shanahan is on a roll, and in a contrarian mood. Bookmark http://www.downstreet.net; as his old-school web-based journal, created before blogging was all the rage, does not generate an RSS feed.

Hey There Analog Bob-Meet the Press!

This just in from City Councilor Bob Reckman concerning the first meeting of the Best Practices Committee:

"The location of the initial meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices has been changed. The committee will meet in the BPW Board Room, which is located in the Department of Public Works at 125 Locust St., Northampton. The building is across Rt. 9 from Smith Vocational. We are trying to arrange for the meeting to be broadcast live or taped for later showing. We do not know yet if we will be successful. The public is cordially invited to attend."

Uhh, Bob, could we have a date and time? As for "taping" the proceedings...we hope you are succesful. But ya never know, one of them new-fangled digital documentarians might just choose to cover the event....