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June 20, 2010
The Atlantic asks, "Can Anyone Replace the Local Beat Reporter?" Not that likely (but City Limits is trying to crowd-fund a development story)
Atlantic Yards Report
This blog entry starts by referencing an article from The Atlantic that shows, although a beat reporter can be well-positioned to find a story that might otherwise be missed, sometimes ordinary citizens can come up with story on their own.
Norman Oder's perspective on beat reporter versus citizen reporter:
I'm pessimistic that beat reporting can just bubble up.
Writing in April 2009 on a debate about the future of news between Princeton sociologist Paul Starr, a pessimist, and Outside.in founder Steven Johnson, an optimist, I noted that Johnson agrees that traditional reporting skills are needed "for the macro issues, but on the hyperlocal level the true experts are people on the streets."
As I pointed out, Atlantic Yards is both hyperlocal (and thus too fine-grained in its iterations for daily print coverage) as well as macro (encompassing a wide range of beats, including real estate, public policy, sports business, law, and local politics). So traditional reporting skills are necessary. It's very hard to become an expert on that stuff.
Oder points to one attempt at filling in the gap between the numbers of reporters available and the stories that ought to be written.
Meanwhile, City Limits magazine, which does solid work on a shoestring, is now trying to crowdsource funding for an investigation, aiming to raise $5000 with the following pitch:
Anyone who has lived in or visited New York in the past decade has seen the tower cranes and orange netting that color the skyline—harbingers of the new developments that are remaking the city, from baseball stadiums to shopping malls to luxury condos. This progress has costs, primarily the impact these projects have on existing neighborhoods.
To fend off opposition to their plans, developers often promise “community benefits” in the form of housing, amenities and jobs.
But do the benefits ever get delivered?
If so, who gets them?
And if not, who holds the builders’ feet to the fire?
City Limits wants to conduct a detailed investigation of big projects—and big promises—around the city to figure out which developers have kept their word.
Posted by steve at June 20, 2010 6:39 AM