This is CNN
The Cable News Network (CNN) announced this week that it will begin to let "consumers" play a more prominent role in the news gathering process.
It has created a new plan to let users send in breaking news events in their region, via e-mail. Seasoned editors will fact check contributions much in the same way all news tips are followed up.
One executive said, "This is an opportunity to hear the very personal stories of people who know the events
We admit we were confused by CNN's big announcement. We wondered to whom they were referring as "consumers," and why allowing them to participate in the news gathering process was, in itself, even newsworthy.
We conclude that CNN officials were eager to announce the network's readiness to "hear the very personal stories of people who know the event
We're happy CNN is making an effort to catch up with The Hillsboro Star-Journal and other papers like it. But it still has a long way to go, and will probably never catch up.
Because ever since small-town newspapers have been around, long before television and the 24- hour news cycle, we editors have operated CNNs of our own.
Small-town editors have called their way of doing journalism different things in the past, such as hometown news, or country editing, and the like.
The journalism we think of when we see our CNN can be traced back to the cold type and pocket watch days. We call it Community Network News.
In the small towns and cities of America, the local newspaper at its best connects people to each other, in community.
The way we find out about what's going on, good or bad, true or not, right or wrong, is through the grapevine, and that's networking.
What's news to one group of people, to another doesn't mean a thing. But somehow we seem to agree on what's important, such as birth announcements, Little League, and for whom the wedding bells ring.
We're working on a plan to help make Community Network News a reality in this town and in this newspaper. You won't hear about it on television, so keep reading.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
