Saint Paul Neighborhood Network is seeking to improve coverage of St. Paul neighborhoods by recruiting, training, assigning publishing and producing the work of citizen journalists working in print, radio, online and video. SPNN is working with several collaborators to create a Saint Paul Newsdesk, including the Twin Cities Daily Planet, an online community news site.
Saint Paul Newsdesk began commissioning stories on neighborhood issues, some of which were posted on the TC Daily Planet in July and August, including a piece on AIDS prevention work, a children’s march against deportation, and community opposition to proposed tunneling under a congested intersection.
SPNN staffer Sherine Crooms, a public TV producer, developed a formal training program for Newsdesk contributors and SPNN has been recruiting St. Paul residents to apply to participate in its series of workshops on journalism, camera work and video editing. “This is an opportunity for community folk to produce short news stories in written and visual form, about issues that are important to them and their communities,” the home page reads. “To encourage citizen journalism and promote democratized television these news shorts may appear on Twin Cities Daily Planet and SPNN websites as well as SPNN broadcasts. Each participant will receive a stipend in exchange for their 3-5 minute video submission.”
“Our goal for the training is to sustain a group of 15 citizen journalists producing video stories of Saint Paul through April 2008, ” says SPNN Executive Director Mike Wassenaar. “Citizen journalists will be recruited from the broad community of Saint Paul residents, and may or may not have technical training ahead of time. We believe this will increase the diversity of voices featured in the project.” First video posts are expected at the end of November.
SPNN continued promotion of the project on its own channels, and through materials distributed to community based producers, youth groups and schools, civic leaders through Saint Paul e-Democracy, the Community Technology Empowerment Project, and the Twin Cities Youth Media Network.
