Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Get involved



I didn't think this image would look so small, but here's a peak at what St. Louis Post-Dispatch is doing to generate user interest. They've created a separate Web site that they link to in many instances called mystltoday. http://my.stltoday.com/community/app/nf/vistafs.aspx

What this Web site does is it encourages community participation in journalism. It allows people to share the stories of how the news has impacted their life, tailoring it to their specific needs, wants and desires.

In my opinion the best thing about this is that it breaks down the barriers between journalists and the community they serve. Journalists can be viewed as higher players in the game of information, simply gathering and preaching news as we see hit. Yet the media outreach created through user submitted content allows readers to become part of the news, a move that could hopefully generate some revenue and more importantly, more interest in a business that according to gruesome headlines has taken a few blows.

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