joni ayn

A few months ago, I asked a few hyperlocal people to share some of their best “digital stories”. What they pointed to looked nothing like the 2-minutes-and-a-bit first-person-narrative videos that the #DS6 digital storytellers have developed. Will Perrin pointed out Spitalfields Life. Joe Stashko shared Blog Preston’s EDL/UAF demo coverage. Nicky Getgood told me about her [...]

After last week’s #daftarrest of Carmarthenshire blogger Jacqui @caebrwyn Thompson for filming a council meeting, I put my name on this petition. (I don’t ever do this. In fact, this is the only petition I’ve ever signed.) Simply put, I think elected officials who invite the public into their public meetings, should also welcome [...]

The debate rages on. People are cooling from the word “hyperlocal”, keen to replace it with something else. But what? What flavour is your journalism? (If you even call it journalism.) Two studies point toward a typology, or taxonomy, of local news and information sites. One comes from the USA: Michele McLellan and her list of seven [...]

Scaling up can help hyperlocalists stay strong and sustainable. This can be found in a network, which Journal Local’s founder Philip John blogged about this week. Then he pointed out some of these networks existing in the UK, headlining that they showed “the US how it should be done”. I agree with quite a bit [...]

I’m fascinated with Seattle’s hyperlocal media. (Judging by the American report on the State of the Media 2011, I’m not alone. The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism just released a special report on Seattle as a case study for new media.) And to answer the question in the headline, I don’t really [...]

With the unraveling of TBD.com came a camp of criticism from all sides. Most interesting — to me — was the label the site was branded: hyperlocal. Is a news organisation that covers the Washington D.C. metro area really hyperlocal? [View the story "Towards a definition of "hyperlocal" news... to be determined" on Storify]

Last October, I left the newsroom to become a ‘portfolio journalist‘. Eh? you say. Give up a full-time job in this economic climate? But I did. And in replacing one job, I took on three and a full-time PhD. Six months later, I’ve learned a few lessons: Lesson 1 Burnout isn’t exclusive to the newsroom. Try juggling [...]

I [heart] Twitter. Such a simple service with so much power. But it just hasn’t won me over the way a certain, special social network has. There are just so many more friendly people, fun games, interesting pictures, and gifts. It’s so complex, and full of character. You know which one I’m talking about: Facebook. Twitter may [...]

If I had days-of-the-week knickers, Monday would have yourCardiff emblazoned on the bum. Tuesday would sport CaptureCardiff. Wednesday would go to ClickonWales. Thursday? Friday? Saturday? I’m waiting to find out who else will launch a news site this week. Everyone wants a bit of action. If the capital of Wales was ever in need of more news, that void [...]