January 7th, 2010
New News event in Seattle
By Jessica Durkin
I am in Seattle today attending Day 1 of the Journalism That Matters event: “Re-Imagining News & Community in the Pacific Northwest,” which runs from today through Sunday.
Twitter hashtag: #jtmpnw, and I’m @jessdrkn.
This “un-conference” intends to explore new relationships between journalism and communities. This event is unlike traditional events or conferences with line-ups of experts telling attendess what they are doing — this is about attendees talking to each other.
I am hosting a table for my website on hyperlocal and community news start-ups, InOtherNews.us, and for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, of which I’m a director.
Seattle and the Northwest has become a hotbed of community/hyperlocal startup activity. Some participants at this event are:
- Seattle City Club
- The B-Town Blog (from Burien)
- The Salish Sea Network
- The Tyee
- West Seattle Blog
- Xconomy
- YES! Magazine
Other event attendees setting up their tables alonside me in the commons area are:
- Asian American Journalists Association
- Cascadia Times
- Common Language Project
- Countywide Community Forums
- Department of Commnications, University of Washington
- Instivate
- KBCS-FM
- Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in Democracy
- KUOW Public Insight Network
- LocalHealthGuide/Seattle
- Master of Communication in Digital Media, U of W
- Media Island International
- Natural Oregon
- News 21
- Pedro De Valdivia — an artist who uses trash or discarded items for his Modern-Ecoism work
- Reclaim the Media
- Seattle Times
- Sustainable Seattle
- Washington Coalition for Open Government
- Washington News Council
Jessica Durkin is the founder of http:InOtherNews.us, a site that tracks independent community, local and regional news start-ups. She is interested in entrepreneurial journalism and the new paradigm. She is the mid-atlantic director (Region 3) of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Tags: entrepreneurial journalism, hyperlocal, online news start-up, reporting, social networks