One of the bright ideas the media have come up with for staying in touch with the public (not to mention replacing skilled labor) is a wiki-style community journalism called “hyperlocalism.” Last April the Tribune launched its own model, the suburban online newspaper Triblocal.com. You could go to the site, click on your suburb, and immerse yourself in news posted by your friends and neighbors. Then you could write a story of your own.
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Triblocal.com promises that “you’ll work side-by-side with Triblocal.com‘s editorial staff to produce coverage of your community with your news items and your photos.” This suggests trained professionals standing by to teach greenhorns the ropes. Well, yes, a few paid “reporters” have been assigned to Triblocal.com, but aside from managing editor Kyle Leonard, these professionals have precious little experience, and as a contributor you probably won’t have any contact with them anyway. “Our stories go up immediately,” Leonard says. “Photographs need to be approved. We don’t edit the stories. If we find a story inappropriate we delete it—or leave it up.”
So what do the paid reporters do? “‘Reporter’ is probably not the exact right term,” Leonard allows. He says their main job is to go out into the communities and stir up interest in Triblocal.com.
Topping the front page of Trib Local‘s January 10 edition was the story “Democrat Mark Pera picks up support,” by Patrick Corcoran, “citizen contributor.” The story had appeared online three days earlier. The parents of a Lipinski staffer—folks who might never have stumbled upon Triblocal.com but who subscribe to the Tribune—spotted Corcoran’s story in the insert and mentioned it to their son.
To submit to Triblocal.com you have to register first, and to register you have to give your real name, phone number, and e-mail address. But that’s where full disclosure ends. “You can create a screen name that says anything,” says Leonard. For instance, the Forest Preserve District of Kane County submits stories as “Kane Forest,” and Geneva’s school district 304 submits them as “Geneva 304.” Says Leonard, “It’s very obvious who’s posting”—but it doesn’t have to be. Corcoran could have signed his articles “S.U. Burble” or “Neada Change” or “Nomar Lies”—not that I’m trying to give anyone ideas.
The Lipinski camp found out that both Leonard and Corcoran used to work at Pioneer Press—Leonard as an editor, Corcoran as a reporter. Were the two in cahoots? Were Corcoran’s privileges a signal that the Tribune, which had yet to endorse anyone in the Third District race, had made its choice?
For more see Michael Miner’s blog, News Bites, at chicagoreader.com.
