Community Journalism Club Update

The Community Journalism Club has been meeting in Virginia since July! It's about time we posted a progress report!

At our first meeting we talked about forming a club to informally support local people interested in using the Internet to communicate. We decided to alternate short presentations about technology topics of interest to group members with working session where we bring in our project or story ideas to vet get feedback and solicit ideas and suggestions from the group.

Our first technology presentation was about Tips and Technologies for Conducting Interviews. We picked that topic because the Britt Historical Society is working on a project to interview elderly residents and Char wanted to know more about how to post interviews to the Internet. In August, Shelly Ceglar, Mountain Iron-Buhl technology and media specialist, provided information on interviewing technologies and uploading interview files (audio/video) to the Web. Scott Hall of 91.7 KAXE community radio provided tips about how to conduct good interviews. Google them both for fascinating results.

In September we were going to talk about Hometown Focus, a local community journalism site and weekly paper, but everybody at the meeting already knew about them, so we talked about important issues on the Range like restoring historic buildings, climate change, the spiraling national economy and people having to choose between food and heat this winter. Did that come up at the meeting or was that another conversation?

And then Ross issued our assignment: Bring a story idea or draft to the October 27th meeting to run by the group for tips, ideas and suggestions!

Next Meeting:
Monday, October 27, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Mesabi Range Community & Technical College Room C156
1001 W. Chestnut Street, Virginia, MN

Related Links (Places I ran into while writing this post!)

Saturday, October 18, 2008 Ironworld
Out of the Dark: Shedding Light on Your Family History - A full day series of workshops designed to help you research and tell the stories of your family history. Keynote Presentation “How to Be Your Family’s Storyteller” by author and storyteller Kevin Strauss.

July 2008 - Moving community radio to the Internet - A BusinessNorth article about the Northern Community Internet Project.

Griff Wigley's March 2007 Post on the Northern Community Internet Project and Leadership Blogging Guide - How to use weblogs as an effective local leadership tool.

and
KAXE's Morning Show Blog