CAPECODNEWS.ORG:
LOCAL NEWS ON CAPE COD? BUT WHY?
In the old west, a saloon set up shop, followed in fast order by a general store and a church.
Schools appeared. But only when a newspaper started publishing did the settlement become a town with an identity.
In today's media landscape, "the newspaper" takes many forms, including digital and video. Click here to visit CapeCodNews.org.
Local reporting helps connect and sustain communities, conversations, and our sense of belonging.
Why Local News?
The “newspaper” wasn’t about a form (ink on paper) but rather about creating a hub where community members shared news, celebrated or commiserated together, explored ideas and fears and connected with each other around a shared sense of place and belonging.
Shared knowledge and experiences help form a sense of “us” - and Cape Cod wants, deserves, and needs local news, reported and shared locally, by and about the people who live, work, and value this special place.
LOCAL NEWS NEEDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
The world has changed and the communication tools have changed - but this very core human need for interconnection has not. Communities need that connective communication space. When our stories are no longer told, our stories are no longer being created .... Like the Whoville community on Horton the elephant’s dust speck, we need to shout “We are Here!” in order survive and thrive.
We live in a time where so much feels so divisive -- but that only emphasizes the need for sharing in a fair, balanced, and nonpartisan environment.
We began CapeCodNews.org inspisred by a converasation at the 2017 Knight Foundation conference that talked about the role local media plays in “issues and troubles.” The world’s big issues matter, of course, but managing the myriad of local community “troubles” on daily basis forms the backbone that keeps our communities healthy places to live.
Where else but local media can we talk about why a new fire station does (or doesn’t) matter, or how a local arts center offering new studios might create an economic pop for the area? These hyper-local topics may not matter to humanity as a whole on a global scale, but they make a dramatic difference to everyday life in our home region. The connective hub of local media provides the stage upon which a community can engage and create together.
FORMS & FORMATS
Beyond doubt, the 21st century has brought a whole new way of communicating, connecting, and sharing within and among ourselves. The whole way we interact with content and our expectations for what content can be and where content comes from has changed ... and continues to change.
We work to meet people where they are: TV, mobile, online. There is no longer a “them” and “us!” Our role is to facilitate the “we.”
That means rethinking the form of video news in the 21st century ... and trying things that may or may not work. It isn’t just about how we distribute video content - it shapes the very form video content takes.
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