Not only readers, participants

The ground has shifted beneath community journalism, and the new landscape has a different feel.

These days, good cameras in almost everyone’s pocket and the emergence of social media turns the possibilities around from what existed even a decade ago, and that is both good and bad.

Last week, The Star reported on the funding found for Elmer City’s new fire engine storage facility. Part of the information for that story came from a couple sources that would have been impossible a few years ago.

A group of volunteers called Okanogan County Watch keeps an eye on their county commissioners and dutifully writes concise, straightforward notes on their deliberations and publishes them online, complete with time indexes to let anyone go to the county’s website to watch and listen to the recorded video of their meetings.

That lets newspapers put together a better news product, because it’s tough to cover county commissioner meetings that take place over two days every week. Comments were made at a commission meeting that enhanced the fire hall story.

Even social media, the double-edged sword that it is, can be helpful, if frustrating.

But these days, everyone from county emergency management professionals to the PTA uses it to get the word out, thinking that they actually do. That’s sometimes almost half true.

SM doesn’t always work that way, but everyone believes that if they’ve posted it, the world knows. Often, though, the “post” is hiding in plain sight of anyone who knows where to look. And with so many communications channels available, that can be a problem.

Still, good news items crop up from time to time, and the truth is that those of us in the news business have to adjust our thinking about SM because the flow of information has flipped. It comes from our dear readers to us, instead of the other way around.

Now it’s our job to try to harvest that information and put it into context.

We do appreciate, though, your contributions even more when made in a more direct form that we don’t have to go fishing for, such as a direct email or phone call. And photos are welcome.

Our local citizen journalists are becoming a more crucial part of the whole news ecosystem.

Thanks for helping to keep it going.

Scott Hunter

Editor and publisher