The Hedon Local News Hub - The Concept

So I rang up my local swimming baths. I said 'Is that the local swimming baths?' He said 'It depends where you're calling from.' Comedian Tim Vine

'LOCAL NEWS' is something that matters or is of interest to you in your local area. What matters to you, depends on your perspective and community that you are active in at that particular time. We are all active in communities even if we don't think of it that way - we're active in communities as neighbours, as workers, as travellers and at leisure. And as our lives interact with these communities then 'local news' takes on a different relevance. If you're stuck in a traffic jam then the relevant and useful local news is that which will inform you of how long you will be stuck - and what you might do to get out of the jam.

So the term 'local news' really does depend on where you're calling from and in which particular 'community' you are active in at that particular time. This is important to clarify because 'local news' is something that a new project proposed for Hedon hopes to discuss in some detail.

Hyperlocal news-gathering websites like the Hedon Blog, the Paull Village Hall website and Beverley's HU17.net concentrate on our 'community of place' i.e. where we live. Their 'niche' is our street, neighbourhood, village or town and they strive to bring together everything useful about that place under one virtual roof. How well they do that is open for discussion. But the fact they exist and are increasingly becoming a source of internet based information for local residents within those places means that they are a factor that can not be ignored.

The people behind the growing number (hundreds!) of hyperlocal websites across the country are varied and have different motivations. Some are redundant or student journalists, others are community activists or groups with a sense of civic duty - but all share a passionate belief that reporting the local news and providing local information can play a useful part in improving our communities of place.

Hedon Blog founder and Editor, Ray Duffill (that's me!) hopes to build on the hyperlocal model by establishing a Hedon Local News Hub which will have definitive aims to build a 'local news' infrastructure that can lead to better informed, engaged, and active local communities in Hedon.

The Hedon Local News Hub would aim to be a constituted partnership body bringing together volunteers, local communities, voluntary groups, local business, training providers that can draw in funding to provide a dedicated news-gathering and news-sharing service in the town - and a network of community citizen-journalist reporters with access to training and technical support opportunities. This network would dig out and investigate local issues - hold local authorities to account and strengthen local democracy, and be a source of positive press around which community action could ferment.

The News Hub would research what the local news-needs of the Hedon community actually are and then plan to meet these while providing a community newswire service to link those with news to share with existing media organisations that can do this.

This is the first in a series of articles exploring this concept. If you would like to get involved, have advice or information to share, or otherwise wish to express an interest in this idea, then please e-mail hu12@gmx.com and put "News Hub" in the subject line. 

In writing this article I have been inspired by the Media Trust document Meeting the news needs of local communities (published on Scribd).

Read more...

HU17.net is all about Beverley…. something the Hull Daily Mail is not!

PAUL SMITH IS THE DESIGNER of HU17.net which is the website all about Beverley.


The Hedon Blogger met Paul last year and I can vouch that he is Mr Beverley! He is passionate about the town and seems to be everywhere covering everything; events, sports and news about the place. HU17 is the website to go to find out almost anything about Beverley.

Paul enjoys what he does - he introduces himself wearing his trademark HU17 T-shirt to local shopkeepers, publicans, and organisers of community events and finds out what they are doing. He then reports that on the website usually accompanied by fantastic photographs of the shop, business or event.

His coverage of local sports particularly football is outstanding. He reports the matches via his photographs and gives local teams valuable publicity and promotion that they rarely get from elsewhere!

I suspect there are various clones of Paul Smith running around - that surely must be the only way he can cover all the material that he does!

The story that Paul is really many clones of himself is of course outrageous - but not as outrageous as the attempt today by the Hull Daily Mail to smear the HU17 website by associating it with hardcore porn sites.

The Hull Mail reports about Paul's alleged website porn business - a story that he anticipated and answered on HU17: The Truth Behind Shocking Headlines.

It does seem extreme that the Hull Daily Mail employed an undercover reporter in an attempt to 'trap' the Beverley website designer - usually a tactic adopted to ensnare criminals. And the Hedon Blog can't help but ponder the fact that HU17.net is the best source for local news in Beverley and in that sense a competitor to the Hull Mail.....

The issue of getting involved in the legal porn industry (producing web code) to make a living can only be judged on a personal level. However, this Blogger judges Paul Smith on the excellent work he has done in creating HU17.net and the community he has built around it on Facebook.

I like Paul - whichever clone I'm talking to - and admire the work he does. The efforts of the Hull Daily Mail in undermining his efforts, however, do leave a bitter taste!

If the Hedon Blog and HU12.net achieves the support and status of HU17..... then what nasty stuff might the Mail dig up about the Hedon Blogger!?

Read more...