hyperlocal journalism

Seth Lewis • [email protected]

Hyperlocal Journalism

Seth C. LewisSchool of Journalism

University of Texas at [email protected]


Overview

• 1. What is hyperlocal journalism?• 2. Case study: Rob Curley– Putting the "hyper" in hyperlocal– His rise, fall … and rise again in Vegas

• 3. Future directions for journalism– What exactly is "local" as we go forward? – Doing news, block by block


Hyperlocal, defined … sort of

• It overlaps with citizen media/journalism• It’s “unique local content”• It’s about community conversation• It’s leveraging newspapers’ core competency

(local expert reporting) and complementing it with depth achieved through citizens and tech.

• Keep in mind:– In some cases, it’s journalism (somewhat)– In other cases, it’s not ... It’s just “people talking”


Major types of hyperlocal sites

• Mostly Pro … a fully serviced suite:– Nifty databases– Community calendars– Lots of news (pros + amateurs)– Think: Rob Curley-style hyperlocal

• Mostly Amateurs … a repository for UGC: – User-created blogs, photos, videos– Like the citizen media sites we’ve studied – Think: Backfence.com, Bluffton Today


The case of Rob Curley

"Dude …"


His mantra: be indispensable

• "I want a site to be so cool and important to people that they talk about it the way you talk about having a great park where you live. It's a local amenity.”

Source: “Hyper-local Hero,” Fast Company, 2006


Curley-isms

• Master the obvious– Know the community’s core interest• Lawrence: basketball• Hannibal: Twain• Naples: real estate

• There’s no such thing as overkill online• Cover "small-J" journalism– "We can’t out-CNN CNN. But we can make sure

that no one out-Naples us."


Curley’s creations

• Digital baseball cards for Little Leaguers• Guides for restaurants (every eatery), beaches

(360-degree view) and more• Podcasts of local church sermons• Online radio station for local artists• "Survivor" for city council members• "Stats on steroids"• Geo-coded news (just plug in your address)


Curley goes to Washington


What happened at LoudonExtra?


Problems, inside and out

• Odd linking (or none at all!) from WashingtonPost.com– To wit: http://is.gd/3ALp

• Challenges with bureaucracy– Difficulties in piping in Loudon-related content

from Flickr, YouTube, etc. — a great idea that died in the legal department

• A community (spawling Loudon County) with little in common

See: “Big Daily’s ‘Hyperlocal’ Flop” (Wall Street Journal, 2007)


WaPo like Microsoft — too big?"Microsoft couldn't overcome the tendency of huge,

established companies not to be able to anticipate what's next. And so Google slipped onto the scene, making a ton of money with online advertising and slowly but surely developing free, Web-based applications that may someday make a program like Microsoft Office (or at least the idea of paying for it) obsolete.Likewise, when it comes to hyperlocal online journalism, I think it's more likely that community-based bloggers will start doing real journalism, and embrace professional standards, than it is that big papers like the Post will be able to dominate that turf."

Source: Dan Kennedy, MediaNation


Leaving for Las Vegas


Now at the Las Vegas Sun

• Looks like they’re having fun– Stuff that’s original, unique, suited to digital

• From shovelware to bang-up design – “We thought templates should bend to the news”

• Video galore– Done with users in mind (large and downloadable)– Everywhere users might be (including on TV)

• Leverage existing user-generated content– Pull from YouTube, local bloggers already going

Source: Mindy McAdams


Getting the work right• Web-first culture: risk-taking, experimentation• What they’re looking for– Multimedia storytelling sensibilities– Basic knowledge of HTML– In short: You can do this!


Let’s review: patterns of success• Know thy community– what does it really care about?– Hyperlocal strategies have to vary place by place– Pro-led or amateur-driven?

• Get the word out– Backfence, LoudonExtra failed in promoting, engaging– How you do this varies on what you’re asking for — an

“audience” or a “co-contributor”?• Above all: adopt a digital culture —>– Fearless– Innovative– Free to fail


“Across the parking lot from the Daily News newsroom, the new-media department is a hectic and cluttered cross between a startup and a college paper. There's a large-screen TV, XBox console, restrooms labeled women.com and men.com, a kitchen that doubles as a podcast studio, and a dark couch that gets plenty of use. The small fridge in the corner, stocked with Red Bull, Mountain Dew, and other sodas, empties fast. … Welcome to the nerdery. It’s not hard to imagine that in five years, this is what a newsroom will look like.”

Source: “Hyper-local Hero,” Fast Company, 2006


When hyperlocal fails

• Why have some efforts struggled of late?


Community vs. Utility

"Hyperlocal is about ‘community,’ sure, but on the Web it’s more about utility — hyperlocal is where we lead our daily lives and all the things we need to get done. We need to know where to live, where to find the zoo, where to eat out, where to play golf, where the local YMCA is, and where to see a dentist."

Source: Publishing2, after Backfence failed in 2007


Community vs. Utility

• Hyperlocal’s problem, then: what people need (i.e., local reporting) is not necessarily what they want (i.e., help getting things gone)?

• Plus, Google search is faster and more efficient for getting a "job" done

• However, what if that "job" is simply connecting with people in the community?


Future of hyperlocal

• Geographic communities– Example: Front Porch Forum

• Shared-interest communities– Emerging via social networking? Sports?– In what sense is this "local"?

• There’s real power in combining both– MomsLikeMe.com

• How about … hypersocial, hyperpersonal?


Directions for Journalism?

(That’s Big-Jandsmall-jjournalism …)


Directions for Journalism• Data automation and visualization (think: EveryBlock)– Aggregation– Databases– Mapping

• Street-leather reporting … by everyone– Engage regular people to cover neighborhood– Hotbed in Chicago

• Chi-Town Daily News• TribLocal.com

• Either way, we need to see: "Local" is no longer the Metro section, or even the weekly Neighbors insert; think block-by-block coverage


• "Bust the silos. Get rid of the beats completely and hire reporters who live in the area that they cover. If this is your neighborhood then you cover every single thing about it. You know it, block by block. You know every single person who lives there. Now, it's called hyper-local, but it's just local journalism. Here's my town, here's my neighborhood and here are the people who live in it. I think you could learn a whole lot more that way."– Ryan Sholin, young programmer-journo extraordinaire


News, block by block


What’s happening on my block?• "Every day, a wealth of local information is

created — officials inspect restaurants, journalists cover fires and Web users post photographs — but who has time to sort through all of that? Our mission at EveryBlock is to solve that problem. We aim to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas. We’re a geographic filter — a ‘news feed’ for your neighborhood, or, yes, even your block."


So, think of “layers of local”

• Spatially …– My city, my neighborhood, my street

• … and personally– The “global” component of one’s network– Hyperpersonal news– “Friend feeds” as local news?

hyperlocal journalism

Documents