02.19.2010 at 3:04 pm | Have your say »

Future of journalism is hyperlocal

“A man found a watch in southern part of Glen Ridge approximately three weeks ago. If you think this could be your watch, please send a description to lostandfound@baristanet.com.” This report, published on a hyperlocal news site, no doubt will help the person who has lost the watch.

Here’s another one: “If you want to try the Chubby Chinese Girl, Cer Te’s February sandwich of the month, but you don’t want to leave your desk they will now deliver it to you.  They originally wouldn’t deliver the sandwich because they couldn’t keep up with demand, and didn’t think it would hold up well… but now that things have settled down a bit it looks like they’re going to try. Welcome news considering the weather, and the fact that there’s only one week left before the sandwich goes away forever!”

These are examples of hyperlocal news feeds generated by users of the news sites. In this kind of citizen journalism, the users or citizen themselves collect, report, analyze and disseminate news and information for the sites. These news feeds keep them updated on their respective areas.

Photo by flickr.com (cc-by foodieSarah)

Hyperlocal journalism is no longer a new concept in the Western world but needs a little explanation for readers in the other part of the globe. The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use modern technology in providing information to others.

This type of journalism provides the users different types of data that have local or hyperlocal relevance, or have interest to the residents. For example, it provides government statistics on crime rates in your neighborhood, which in turn, helps the inhabitants of a locality know more about their area. Besides news, users of the sites also get audio and video clips on different local or hyperlocal incidents.

Difference between local and hyperlocal news feeds

Normally, people won’t read news with a local context that does not concern their own locality.

In “hyperlocal” journalism, the news stories tell about community-level incidents that are not covered by the traditional mainstream media.

This type of journalism has created a niche for itself by only covering narrow-interest stories related to a specific region, city or neighborhood. The increased usages of digital media devices, blogs and participation in social media, have made hyperlocal media content cheaper to produce and distribute.

An example is a story regarding the repair of a pothole on a certain street. Residents of the street where the repaired pothole is, would certainly read the story but it would draw little attention from those living in another area.

Hyperlocal news users write about local issues not focused on by mainstream media but they are also not shy in expressing their opinions on different national and international issues.

In the US, hyperlocal news sites came out with news on the 2008 election in that country. Contributions and inputs about the global recession as well as peace in the Middle East continue to pour in.

Who are the writers for hyperlocal sites?

Writers for this type of journalism come from different walks of life and write on various subjects of their own choice.

The US-based internet newspaper Huffington Post has over 3,000 bloggers that include politicians, celebrities, academics and policy experts. Among the big names in this site are US President Barack Obama, US Foreign Affairs Secretary Hillary Clinton, former US Foreign Affairs Secretary Madeleine Albright, activist and filmmaker Michael Moore and singer Madonna. No doubt, the number of writers for this site is still unthinkable. Nevertheless, the site has 22 million unique users each month, which made UK-based newspaper Observer to rank it as the most powerful blog in the world.

Hyperlocal sites have few professional staff like editors and journalists who manage the site and are paid for it through the site’s or newspaper’s income from advertisements.

Is hyperlocal journalism a treat to mainstream journalism?

In an article about the future of journalism, OurBlook says “In recent months … as erstwhile titans like the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer have vaporized, and others like the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times teeter in bankruptcy, and still others like the Detroit News and Free Press resort to desperate new measures such as curtailing home delivery to just a few days a week … a rough consensus has emerged.”

Photo by flickr.com (cc-by foodieSarah)

Media experts are now worried since newspapers are being overwhelmed by enormous newsprint, production and delivery costs and a huge amount of staffing associated with them – all no longer needed, at least during the week if a weekend print edition remains viable, and in most cities it does, as it can still attract a lot of advertisements.

According to the blog, the Christian Science Monitor has become the pioneer for this change. It eliminated its weekday print editions but its weekender continues.

“While we won’t initially save significant money by ending our daily print publication, we are able to free most of our editors, reporters, photographers, and designers to continuously update our web site, CSMonitor.com. That should bring us more readers,” editor John Yemma told OurBlook.

“Our aim is that over the next five years, our online readership will grow fivefolds … from five million page-views at present to 25 million … and that will provide the revenue to sustain our operations,” he added.

Answering to the question “how can publishers compete with zero-cost base community developed and run sites?” social media expert Paul Brandshaw replied on online journalism blog, “They can’t – and they shouldn’t. When it comes to the web, the value lies in the network, not in the content. Look at the biggest web success story: Google. Google’s value – contrary to the opinion of AP or Rupert Murdoch or the PCC – is not in its content….”

What do the experts think about hyperlocal journalism in the West?

According to media experts in the West, the idea of providing news on a hyperlocal level has attracted much attention over the past years as news outlets look at how to tackle the ubiquity of free online news and try to find something unique that they can offer. In parts of the USA, hyperlocal outfits are now plentiful in number. In Europe, growth is comparatively slower.

But experts like Dutch journalist and managing editor of hyperlocal news platform called Telegraaf Media Group Bart Brouwers think “(the) future of journalism is digital and hyperlocal” and believe that newspapers must ready themselves for the future of journalism in the digital age.

And now it appears that the Netherlands would start to see an attempt to integrate hyperlocal news more deeply into the news landscape after Brouwers, a former editor-in-chief of Dutch tabloid Sp!ts, recently made the decision to move away from print journalism after 25 years and start an online-only network of hyperlocal news outlets.

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