Week 2
"Hyperlocal news" was a term I'd never heard before this week, but I think I actually may have experience with. From my understanding, hyperlocal news sites are those which cover a specific geographical area, but it also begs many questions. In particular, what's the coverage? On what?
Depending on the answer to this question, I think I may have had experience writing for a hyperlocal news platform because,
"I used to work for a radio station in town,"
as I've mentioned, probably too many times, in mass-comm class discussions. I apologize to my peers, as I'm sure it's pretty annoying. We get it. You were an intern.
Too bad it's so damn relevant.
My position at the radio station gave me a healthy dose of all sides of the local radio show. It's true video killed the radio star, but so did the internet, in at least certain aspects.
Yet, radio refuses to die.
Instead, it pretends to be radio while existing as an internet, and, at times, video platform.
Doesn't it seem like radio stations must also be websites, now? With live announcers', "check out the full story on our website" liners and similar tactics.
The radio station I worked for agreed. We had five separately signaled stations, the genres being latin, classic oldies, adult-contemporary (AKA: soccer mom pop), country. I was responsible for creating content for four of these stations.
I would call it hyperlocal, as it was extremely focused on goings-on around Grand Junction, CO. However, I
never really wrote a story for a non-paying client...
For what I think are obvious reasons, I was not extremely passionate about this form of hyperlocal writing.
My operations manager wanted condensed versions of national stories related to each genre which could be posted to Facebook to garner traction for our four sites.
It was a lot of stuff like this.
So, in the sense that I pulled from national sources, this probably wouldn't be considered local content at face value. Or at least not specific to our particular locale.
But, it was about music that played on the radio in our particular town and is pertinent information to individuals that live here- maybe a gray area?
My boss also wanted coverage of local events, including our various remote broadcasts. Often, it would be something a paying or potential client would be putting on or a change in town related to a business, the success of which benefitted our station.
Something like this.
Was that really hyperlocal news?
I think that's debatable. Our purpose wasn't really to inform (unlike our noble news leaders at FOX or CNN, amirite?) the public with unbiased material, rather to boost ad views and client returns, but there's definitely some crossover I think.
Depending on the answer to this question, I think I may have had experience writing for a hyperlocal news platform because,
"I used to work for a radio station in town,"
as I've mentioned, probably too many times, in mass-comm class discussions. I apologize to my peers, as I'm sure it's pretty annoying. We get it. You were an intern.
Too bad it's so damn relevant.
My position at the radio station gave me a healthy dose of all sides of the local radio show. It's true video killed the radio star, but so did the internet, in at least certain aspects.
Yet, radio refuses to die.
Instead, it pretends to be radio while existing as an internet, and, at times, video platform.
Doesn't it seem like radio stations must also be websites, now? With live announcers', "check out the full story on our website" liners and similar tactics.
The radio station I worked for agreed. We had five separately signaled stations, the genres being latin, classic oldies, adult-contemporary (AKA: soccer mom pop), country. I was responsible for creating content for four of these stations.
I would call it hyperlocal, as it was extremely focused on goings-on around Grand Junction, CO. However, I
never really wrote a story for a non-paying client...
For what I think are obvious reasons, I was not extremely passionate about this form of hyperlocal writing.
My operations manager wanted condensed versions of national stories related to each genre which could be posted to Facebook to garner traction for our four sites.
It was a lot of stuff like this.
So, in the sense that I pulled from national sources, this probably wouldn't be considered local content at face value. Or at least not specific to our particular locale.
But, it was about music that played on the radio in our particular town and is pertinent information to individuals that live here- maybe a gray area?
My boss also wanted coverage of local events, including our various remote broadcasts. Often, it would be something a paying or potential client would be putting on or a change in town related to a business, the success of which benefitted our station.
Something like this.
Was that really hyperlocal news?
I think that's debatable. Our purpose wasn't really to inform (unlike our noble news leaders at FOX or CNN, amirite?) the public with unbiased material, rather to boost ad views and client returns, but there's definitely some crossover I think.
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