PublicMediaCamp

For my parents generation the television and two daily newspapers were the sources for  the news.  In the mornings while getting ready for school we’d listen to AM radio – WCCO.  The biggest change in a generation was the advent of television news, which at the time was essentially the radio news being read by someone that could be seen.

In 1982 the Star and the Tribune merged into the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and that same year a new, color-print newspaper showed up in town.  New didn’t necessarily mean better, but there’s no denying that USA Today’s color banners and full-page weather map captured our attention.

Cable news arrived not long after and within a matter of a few years our choices for news expanded rapidly.   New technology offered stock tickers at the bottom of the TV screen, graphics for such things logos and weather maps became more dazzling than ever before.  Media itself became better at using the medium to capture our attention.

And the fact is, we consumed this new level of high-gloss media with tremendous gusto.  When just a few years earlier we’d wait for the morning paper to see how our stocks fared, by the 90’s we could watch the market in real time right from our living rooms.

Tremendous competition for our attention – and associated advertising revenue raised the stakes for media companies.   The voices grew louder and headlines more and more sensational to the point that the “news” became “noise”.  No longer could we just turn on the news, now we had to improve our ability to filter it or be run over by it.

Local news outlets joined us on-line and offered their content for free but lost revenue by negating the need to pick the paper off of our front stoops.  Craig’s List became the national shopping mall and local papers began losing their revenue from the classified ads. Reduced revenue led to reduced staffing and local news coverage suffered.

Local television news turned into a ratings game with hopes of making viewers stay tuned so as to move the audience into their affiliates’ prime-time programming.  What was once truly the local news turned into grand-standing and fear mongering.  Capturing our attention with fear is easy.

A few years ago I came to the conclusion that tuning in to fear-based reporting was destroying my opinion of the world around me. When a gun-pointing burglar at a drive-through window in North Carolina made the top-story on my Columbus news station, I knew things had gone awry.  I made a conscious effort to tune out.

And though I tuned out, I still had a desire to know about meaningful local events taking place.  Blogs became my source of local news.  I found local blogs written by people who were interested in the same things that I was – urban renewal, architecture, social issues and I liked reading these on-line articles because I knew that those doing the writing were telling me about what they’d seen or accomplished themselves.

It’s true that blogs may have a decided slant but I could surmise quickly that the person telling me the story was passionate about the subject.  The passion for virtually any subject was coming from people within my community who had a vested interest in the outcome and was no longer coming from traditional news sources who now failed to educate me, but rather saw me as a source of revenue for their advertisers.

Little did I know that I’d eventually become a part of this new media.  When I would tell friends and neighbors about some fact or event that I’d come across, it was often the case that I’d hear this reply, “How is it that I’ve not heard of this?”

That’s when I started a blog of my own.  Essentially I did it as a way to tell my friends and neighbors about the information that I was discovering rather than having to write numerous e-mails.  Never did I think that what I was writing would end up becoming part of a city-wide dialog as it did when I started writing about my use of public transportation.

Having grown up with public transit and living in various cities where it was simply accepted and would have been considered passe’, in Columbus I found a local appetite for the stories I was sharing.   Thanks to the web and the interconnectivity of blogs, my stories found their way to other cities where similar topics were bubbling to the surface.

Interestingly enough it was my stories that drew readers to the blog.  I wasn’t necessarily reporting on the news, rather, I was simply recanting my experiences.  It turned out that I was creating the type of “new media” that the population found intriguing – the same type of new media that I myself, was seeking on various topics.

No other organization is poised to embrace this new media as well as NPR and it’s member stations.  They are member supported and lack commercial advertising.  NPR and NPR member stations should continue to expand their ability to share local stories that create meaning for their communities.

Creating access points for community “broadcasting” has the ability to create media for the public and not just broadcast to it. Torey Malatia’s Vocalo project as part of WBEZ set up a studio on Chicago’s west side so that residents can drop in and create media that’s relevant to them.  Vocalo’s volunteer staff then edits, creates and broadcasts the listener-generated content over the air, on-line and through streaming audio.

While experimental in nature, Vocalo emerged after Torey Malatia asked the question of whether Chicago public media was meeting the needs of the entire population or simply catering to the “lake-front liberals”.

Like any brand, NPR and NPR member stations will see and ebb and flow of listeners and contributors.  And like any brand, these stations must find ways to create new audiences that will become future contributors.  Unlike any other time, or perhaps like it was a few decades ago, the best way to create an audience is to engage them.

Our communities are craving information, education and relevance.  Today as it stands, we have more powerful tools and more economical ways to engage them than ever before.  And perhaps that is the obligation that stands before all of us.

For more information or to register for PubCampOhio on Sat., May 8, click here.