Listen News Folks, Learn to Engage Community
In the last couple of posts I have talked about engaging the audience, becoming part of the community. So listen to how it is happening at Open Source radio, first this from its introduction:
Open Source is a conversation, four times a week on the radio and any time you like on the blog. We designed the show to invert the traditional relationship between broadcast and the web: we aren’t a public radio show with a web community, we’re a web community that produces a daily hour of radio.
So to everyone who thinks audiences will only want to talk about Britney Spears’ bald head, look at this topic the community wants to be on the radio:
Hannah Arendt and the Banality of Evil
Here is what has been on Open Source recently:
Making the Rounds with Seymour Hersh; One Nation, Under Surveillance; Hollywood and Politics; Who Won in Iraq?; One Laptop Per Child?; Iran: Another War Dance?, Katrina and the Insurance Tsunami
So stuff the stupid audience mantra, the truth is there are all kinds of audiences. In fact, most journalists I know, if you asked them to do several of these stories, would be stuck. You see, most of them are no smarter than the audiences they degrade. That’s fine. In fact, they have to go out and find the audiences that fit their own talent and interest level. There are plenty of matches that will make the journalists and the audiences happy.
(Hannah Arendt sculpture by Volker Marz ; photo by Ovit)
I was reminded of Open Source radio because of this E-Media Tidbits story: Radio Open Source Gets $250K. MacArthur Grant
