Okay, I’ve coined my own term for what we’re doing in the Brooklyn Blog Zone. Someone called it hyperlocal — don’t know who. And I wanted my very own term, my own jargon. So I’ve made one up. Deep Local. That’s my term. DEEP LOCAL.
It’s very local news. Very micro.
It’s what I see out my window, on my street, on the avenues of my neighborhood.
It’s everything: Mrs. Kravitz giving her kidney to Mr. Kravitz. The dead flowers in a vase that spent months on the window sill of my neighbor, whose husband died. The demonstrators who show up every Tuesday evening to protest the Iraq war at Brooklyn City Hall. The conflict that arose when a mother accused a neighbor of being a child molestor and posted it on trees and lamp posts. The teenager who plays sitar on our stoop.
It’s "Lost Boy’s Hat."
It goes from micro to macro. Sometimes the meaning of the stories ripple outward and touch on significant themes: PS 321 around the corner to THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY. Conversations overheard at Tempo Presto, Sweet Melissa’s, the Cocoa Bar to PEOPLE ARE VERY VERY ANGRY ABOUT IRAQ. The controversial Atlantic Yards development to THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK CITY AND URBAN AREAS EVERYWHERE. The boy who wrote a letter to Marty Markowitz about the B67 bus TO THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING. Whole Foods in the Gowanus to DO CITIZENS HAVE A SAY ON WHAT GOES ON IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS. My shift at the Food Coop to THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND HEALTHY FOOD. The arts event I thought was cool and smart to WHY CAN’T GOOD CULTURE BE POPULAR CULTURE AND VISA VERSA.
The local is worldy. Especially around here with so many writers, artists, legal aid lawyers, non-profit leaders, educators, political activists, social workers…
The personal is political.
Deep Local means close attention to the substance of my life, your life, my friend’s life. Deep Local is what’s neglected by the local news.
Deep Local is the opposite of generic or stereotypic. It’s specific, detailed, full of contradiction and complexity.
Deep Local. It’s my term now.
sorry, not your term but a good one
http://www.deeplocal.com
Beautifully put! I think this what the folks at NBC were trying — but obviously failed — to understand when they invited bloggers to their recent NYC Blogger Summit. You should follow up by e-mailing this to someone there. Or not. They may be constitutionally incapable of getting it.
Coincidentally, my 16-year-old daughter was at NBC yesterday on a school trip, and part of the day included a meeting in which NBC staffers asked for feedback about how teenagers want to get news. “Should we be sending news to your cell phone?” The kids laughed.
Nobody mentioned blogs.
The students enjoyed their tour of the set of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, but none of them watch it (or any other broadcast news show). One student mentioned that most teens get their news either from the Internet or from “The Daily Show.” “Well, we don’t have a show like that,” one staffer said dismissively.
Interestingly, my daughter’s impression was that only the Director of Strategic Planning seemed to be open to breaking out of the standard, broadcast news paradigm. She also learned that nobody has held that particular position for more than a year or so. I guess they get frustrated and move on.
Signed,
Park Sloper
(of the short-lived “Park Sloper” blog of last year)