By Peggy Kuhr
One of Heidi’s favorite blogs is Posie Gets Cozy. Every day, she logs on, lurks and then talks about Alicia Paulson, the blog’s author, as if she lived down the street. When Heidi spied a box of pink glass ornaments at an after-Christmas sale, she almost bought them to send as a gift. She knew the blogger would’ve loved them.
“I feel connected to her,” Heidi says. “I love to people-watch and the Internet is like a big window.”
Posie’s isn’t the only place where Heidi hangs out. Every day, she makes rounds, scanning a knitting blog here, following a link (or 30) there. Without leaving her Midwestern home, she travels to Portland , Ore. , and has a meal with Alicia and Andy. She rides shotgun with Laurie on her California commute. She tracks the dissolution of a marriage in Hawaii. She laughs at the antics of two Nebraska knitters who trek to the local yarn store in Lawrence, Kan.
In the past, when we defined communities, we looked for people who had a shared culture and family ties. Geography was the key. Communities were places on the map. And newspapers defined the communities they served with beats determined by geography as much as by subject.
Today, geography often doesn’t matter; people can keep in touch all over the globe.
How can journalists cover these virtual communities? Ask yourself: What’s bringing people together online so you can call their connection a community? What’s the organizing principle? In some cases, it may still be geography. Or it may be a common interest in, say, a hobby (like knitting) or a topic (like politics).
In any case, exploring the seven knowledge keys can help you figure out whether it’s a community and how to cover it.
You can make checks online the same way a reporter makes the rounds on a street beat. Go where the people are. That might mean looking at dozens of different blogs, and the comments on stories or postings. It might mean listening to podcasts and following the show notes. Or just scanning Facebook and MySpace for familiar faces and story ideas.
In geographic communities, folks tend to gather at what we call Third Places. Today, we’re just as likely to gather online. So visit those places, read and watch. Find story ideas, tap into what’s going on. Your own reporting and writing will be richer for it.