Just start taking the bus because of high gas prices?
By adamg - Thu, 07/17/2008 - 10:39am.
Meghna Chakrabarti at WBUR would like to talk to you. In fact, she wants to ride the bus with you for a story. Contact her at mchakrab@wbur.bu.edu.
Even if you're not a new busser, check out her new blog, which is all about working at 'BUR, and where she wonders how the station can really break into hyperlocal reporting work:
... I want to strap us onto a NCC-1701E nacelle and kick it up to warp 10. ...
So where is her new blog?
You didn't link to it.
http://meghnac.wordpress.com/
http://meghnac.wordpress.com/
looks like an HTML snafu
Her blog is here: http://meghnac.wordpress.com/
oy
Dammit Jim, I'm a blogger, not a journalist!
Opinion: I'm not sure low
Opinion:
I'm not sure low hit rates at Radio Boston's site are entirely related to tackling new media as a format.
A lot of the story ideas on her blog fall into that cutesy abstract public radio realm.
Does anyone need to spend time with a story about whether priests take buses from parish to parish to save on gas?
Does anyone want to blow any time on the differences between faith, spirituality, and religion in the Bay State?
Hyperlocal needn't be precocious.
Just hit the solid underreported basics: Transit, courts, crime, city politics from the top down to the neighborhood level, economic convulsions on the neighborhood level. The pattern is established, but underutilized. People want stronger, more diverse local coverage of hard news (from more than one voice). All the features in the world can't replace that.
Cynic - The line about
Cynic -
The line about priests taking the T was a joke, by the way. But, as for spirituality, I'd say that it's more relevant than your description of "cutesy abstract public radio realm" describes. Those were simply initial queries to see what people out there think. And, call me a hopeless optimist, but as a public radio station, I still believe we do have an obligation to understand what the public thinks.
But I take your point, and actually agree. The basics are underreported. You can get a certain degree of that from the newspapers, and even WBZ, if you want continuous headline news. But WBUR is just a different animal that provides a different product in this media market.
That's not to say we can't or don't do hard news. In fact, that's where I see the greatest potential for a happy marriage between WBUR and New Media. It plays right into what you wrote:
"People want stronger, more diverse local coverage of hard news (from more than one voice). All the features in the world can't replace that."
Keys there are stronger, and more diverse. Why not take the strengths of WBUR, which could be described by those words (though we DO need to be even MORE diverse), and wed them with a hyperlocal focus?
Don't confuse my general questions on the blog with WBUR's genuine, and ongoing, attempts to sharpen its focus and develop its online side.
I'm just a compulsive questioner, and compuslive experimenter. I'd rather try a million things that fail, then stick with one staid thing that's comfortable. But don't worry, most folks here aren't as distractable as I am.
- Meghna
For the record...
Yon anon(ymous) poster may be cynical, but I reserve the privilege of being Cynic for myself.
Sorry
But if you want to reserve that privilege, then sign up for an account and name it Cynic. Otherwise, as long as there's a "(not verified)" next to your name when you post, anyone can use that same name.
Hey, wait ....
For the record, a similar name is already spoken for.
what choo talkin' bout willis?
I should have registered as pseudonymous .
I'm taken with the name
I'm taken with the name "Meghna Chakrabarti" myself. Why do public radio personalities have such mellifluous names?