Trying to play catch-up
That'd be me. A few quick things on my radar (and by all means feel free to let me know what I'm missing):
- Because of my unfortunate indisposition (and trust me, you don't want to know), I missed the Friday news conference regarding upcoming public discussions of the Truth & Reconciliation report (my colleague Tom Steadman's story is here).
- I'm trying to get details nailed down regarding the legal clinic for military veterans that N.C. Central University has talked about opening at its law school. As envisioned, NCCU and UNC-Chapel Hill laws students, supervised by lawyers, would work with veterans on their claims for government benefits at no charge to the vets. I don't have confirmation yet on specific details and began playing phone tag with NCCU's legal-clinic director before my illness.
- I'm beginning a look at vets' efforts to get help for post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm just dipping my toes in, but I've been fascinated by the case of an area man who survived a Vietnam War incident, long classified, that was sort of the Viet Cong "Guns of Navarone."
- Jay Rosen's NewAssignment.Net is up and running. I'll need to take more of a look at it before I'll have anything useful to say, if, indeed, I ever do. Meanwhile, it has initiatives related to tomorrow's elections here and here that you can take part in (if you hurry).
- Gannett, the country's largest newspaper chain, will be imposing citizen journalism on its larger papers from the top down. I need to find out a lot more about this. I will admit to a fair bit of up-front skepticism only because the approach seems to mirror a pattern I've seen in Gannett's news-coverage initiatives: push direction down hard from the top in a way that seems to read the words but totally miss the music, so to speak. In the meantime it's entirely possible that an erstwhile colleague who has spent quite a bit of time in the belly of that particular beast will, I hope, offer some specific details and some quality perspective on the effort.
- Relatedly, here's one example in which newspaper, community and the nature of a specific story came together to produce the kind of citizen journalism that so far we've only been able to dream about:
Consider what the nation's largest newspaper publisher, Gannett Co., is doing at The News Press, its paper in Ft. Myers, Fla.Earlier this year, News Press editors and reporters began hearing that the sewer district in nearby Cape Coral was charging residents as much as $28,000 a year to pay for new residential lines. In an experiment, it asked its readers online and in print to "Help Us Investigate!"
The response was overwhelming, said Cindy McCurry-Ross, the paper's senior managing editor. Readers sent in tips, and a key audit document. The result was a journalistic win--a drop in sewer assessments--as well as a potential business enhancement: Traffic on the Web site soared, giving ad salespeople ammunition to take to clients.
"It was a frenzy,' McCurry-Ross said.
- I'll be covering Tuesday night's City Council meeting so that Margaret can cover the city bond referenda. I haven't seen the agenda yet -- I'm running over in a bit to pick up a copy because the online link isn't working -- but I understand it's heavy on rezoning hearings.
If I've missed something, by all means please let me know.