In writing my story following the Dylan Smith talk, I focused on his idea of news localization. I found it interesting that he emphasized how that is the news people in his community want to hear. Both he and Steve talked about the idea of when some one reads something, their first response is probably, "How does this impact me?" Smith said that is what he was trying to create with TucsonSentinel.com, that the Sentinel would be the experts of all things Tucson. This really struck me.
The Arizona Daily Star's Sarah Gassen also mentioned a similar idea when discussing opinion writing. She stressed the importance of impact on readers with any topic you tackle. She said it was more important to educate your readers than to just give your opinion. It always has to answer that big question.
Jill Cassidy, the travel editor for the Arizona Republic, brought up the same ideas in our story discussion over lunch as well. Nearly every story our group pitched to her, she made sure to check that our angle had our readership in mind and why they would care about the topic. Some one in our group (Stephanie?) is even tackling the topic to an extent, exploring how high school newspapers tackle world news., making them relevant to high school students.
Chad Renning
Sandra Day O'Connor High School
Phoenix
Chad, I have noticed the repeated theme as well, and it isn't necessarily new, but often neglected. I think the larger the news outlet, the more difficult it becomes to localize something because the local area is simply too large. Someone in class said it, and I apologize for not remembering who, that we often think of things on the Internet as being for everyone in the world, but Dylan Smith definitely countered that idea. It seems as if our school publications and online content need to be more localized than ever to avoid burial in the the ocean of information we receive about everywhere else.
ReplyDeleteJill's a terrific mentor. I'm glad she's working with you.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix