Hyperlocal news at work

by Brynne Tuggle

The world of journalism is changing drastically. No longer do we the audience have to depend on the traditional news organizations to be our source for news. We can participate in the process ourselves. And now, more than ever, we’re interested in the news that we want to know about. We’re determining what’s most important by our involvement in the news process. So, what is hyper-local news? Wikipedia says:

The term "hyperlocal" is sometimes used to refer to news coverage of community-level events. Typical mainstream media do not cover topics with narrow interest like street repair or local health inspection results, and instead focus on regional, national, and global concerns and trends. Hyperlocal media has created a niche for themselves by only covering narrow-interest stories related to a specific region, city, or neighborhood.

This is what the audience is asking for. This is the way journalism used to operate. Small community newspapers and even television stations when they came on the scene worked to serve the small community they were a part of. It was when journalism became a money-maker, that the bottom line became the main focus, not the goal of giving news to the community that each news organization was designed to serve.

So, a website called Neighborlogs is getting back to “serving the community” with its mission of getting people in small communities involved in reporting the news that is important to them. Neighborlogs is a free, hosted placeblogging platform with an integrated local advertising service. It’s designed for local content contributors and organizations to document the news and information that maters most in their communities. It also gives local businesses a relevant, engaged audience for their advertising messages.

How does it work?

Just register for the site.

And start adding content!

It’s that simple.

There’s a place for videos, photos, maps showing all the stories and their locations, as related to your specific community, everything you need on your neighbor log, including the opportunity for local businesses to advertise.

This is a great way for a hyper-local news organization to get off the ground. Here you’ll find all the tools necessary to become a citizen news participator. You just have to get involved.

Here are some examples of hyper-local news organizations that are putting it into practice.

1. Capitol Hill Seattle