Scan-N-Land

Mojos and Manslaughter

I meant to post this up on the blog last week, as it certainly applies to everything we have been talking about in class. On December 4th, Washington Post Staff Writer Frank Ahrens wrote an article about the Fort Myers News-Press, and how they have been taking steps to become "hyper-local."

They are forgoing the traditional reporters and replacing them with mobile journalists, or what they dub, "mojos." These next generation journalists work out in the field seeking out the latest news and processing the information via a slew of techincal gadgets in the comfort of the front seat of their car.

Gannett is also incorporating searchable databases allowing the reader to do their own investigations. It is "crowdsourcing" techniques like this that are making it easier for citizens to uncover a scandal in the government or an inconsistancy in a company's business practices.

In his blog, he adds some additional changes that didn't make it into his article, but are just as innovative, intriguing and...a bit frightening:

Like some other Gannett papers, the News-Press has "citizen members" of the editorial board. These Regular Joes apply for a one-year term on the paper's editorial board. They do not write editorials, but they influence the paper's stand on issues and they vote on endorsements. The News-Press has three, one of which is a former inmate, four times imprisoned, once for manslaughter. The paper knew this when it appointed him to the board. Now, that's diversity.

Check out either of these articles to read more about the different things Gannett is experimenting with in their papers, making them more geared towards our fast paced lifestyles that come with rapidly changing technology. Ahrens wonders, however, if they are actually becoming to customized for the citizens.

Regardless of whether or not this is true, I think that once you grant the reader the power and the convenience of interactivity, it will be nearly impossible to back away from these new standards. The information flood gates are now open...for good.


-Chris Snyder

Photo by Flickr user roland

posted by Mark H. @ 12/14/2006 10:35:00 AM