Community Journalism Site a community building tool

Hartsville is one of the relatively few communities in the country that has a community journalism web site. This site is called hartsvilletoday and was the brainchild of Doug Fisher of the University of South Carolina School. He received a quick let's do it from Graham Osteen, who was then publisher of the HARTSVILLE MESSENGER and funding from the Knight Foundation and the J-Lab at the University of Maryland.

The key purpose of the site is for participants, who can be anyone who signs up, to help tell the many stories that emanate from a community like Hartsville, SC. Some days the site includes news about a break in at a local restaurant or about Toastmasters speaking at the All-Member Lunch of the Chamber of Commerce or about the local Dixie youth team and their progress in the all-star competition. In the past week or two there have been lengthy exchanges among animal lovers that are bringing to light organizations that many never knew were around for the 'love' of animals as well as what are considered problems with the local animal shelter.

In the past this site has been used to report on community conversations that were started to get local input on what's needed to bring Hartsville to the next level of quality of life. One result of those community conversations was the initiation of a current project called "Selling Hartsville," which has the logo-slogan Hartsville, The Art of Good Living. (This slogan was created with the consulting assistance of Carolina Marketing of Charlotte.)

The HVTD website has also proved to be a major showcase for the community as photos can be uploaded to the site. Several people have highlighted special places in the Hartsville community as well as their own pets, gardens and other hobbies.

And, the site has lots of characteristics of other interactive-people sites with disagreements as well as congratulations -- often a rather vibrant community interchange.

In nearly every meeting that I attend with Hartsville people working to ensure a growing, vibrant, diverse, thriving community, the question and issue of inadequate communication is on the table. The HVTD website has been helping us bridge this issue and has the potential to be a major medium in community communication. Doug Fisher recently reported that more than 1000 people have registered and that is a start. We are hoping that increasingly more people will find that this community journalism site, an opportunity for anyone to tell Hartsville stories, will generate more and more contributors and readers. It is really an amazing tool for various aspects of community communication -- one of the major building blocks of community building.