Hyperlocal Education Reporting

by: deciminyan

Fri Feb 18, 2011 at 03:53:34 PM EST

If you’re reading this, you are probably more involved with, and informed about, the political system in New Jersey than most citizens. You’re aware that despite being sandwiched between the New York and Philadelphia news behemoths, there are many outlets to provide you with news on the state level. But what about news that most affects your pocketbook and your daily life - news about your local community?

Local news has suffered with the cutbacks in dead-tree newspapers. If you’re fortunate, your community is covered by a hyperlocal site from patch.com or some other local citizen-journalist enterprise. Hyperlocal news sites are cropping up across the state and nation. But how do these citizen-journalists, some who put in 12 to 15 hour days, do their job effectively?

The New Jersey Hyperlocal News Association’s (NJHNA) mission is to provide training and resources for those journalists to enable them to report thoroughly and accurately. The group held its second general session today on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus. The topic was reporting on the activities of local school boards.

Gene Maeroff

After introductory remarks from Heather Taylor of NJHNA and Dr. John Pavlik, head of the Rutgers journalism department, the keynote address was delivered by Gene Maeroff, President of the Edison school board and a noted education writer. He described the school board budgeting process and offered some tips for those reporting on school board activities. (The entire session was videotaped and will be posted on the NJHNA web site.) Following the keynote, a panel discussion was held, with Jonathan Busch, an attorney who represents boards of education; Dr. Valerie Goger, superintendent of schools for Bernards Township; and John Mooney, founder and education writer for NJ Spotlight. All discussed the budgeting and election process from the perspective of their individual involvement.

Among the things the audience learned were the timeline for the budgeting and election process, how board of education members must not electioneer for or against the budget, and the impact of the governor’s tax caps and cuts on the education process. There were discussions on the best ways for local reporters to ferret out facts that might not always be easy to obtain.

NJHNA’s next session, scheduled to occur in about two months, will discuss how to cover municipal meeting and elections.

deciminyan :: Hyperlocal Education Reporting

Tags: Education, NJHNA, Heather Taylor, Valerie Goger, Edison, Gene Maeroff, Jonathan Busch, John Mooney, NJ Spotlight, Rutgers, John Pavlik, budget, Chris Christie, (All Tags)

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Hyperlocal Education Reporting | 4 comments

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I just learned today this event was happening. I was going to ask you if you went. Looking forward to watching the video.
I sent an email to some folks at Patch to see if they had any plans to set up shop in my neck of the woods (Washington Twp, Gloucester County). From the looks of the Patch map there is a whole swath of our area that is not covered.

Blog: Pick's Place

by: jeffpickens @ Fri Feb 18, 2011 at 21:08:11 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Sorry this is off topic, (0.00 / 0)

but I just came across a brilliant article in the Huffington Post:

Gov. Chris Christie: The Biggest Sham In American Politics

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Courage and "Big Things" my ass...

by: Kosh Naranek @ Fri Feb 18, 2011 at 21:59:25 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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