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Hyperlocal isn’t easy. Very few people have the necessary skills, required enthusiasm and precious time all available at once.
I’m concentrating on money journalism now. Who knows, I might even get the odd commission for further travel pieces. In this difficult economy (that’s about to become much more austere), writing about money issues in a way that’s relevant to ordinary people is my hope.
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Too rarely do we return to stories that have "faded away" and ask, what happened next?
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Dim Sum Digital 
If the ‘new journalism’ ends up anything like the ‘new politics’ then I won’t be a part of it…
Except I am apparently. Because ‘new media’ constitutes new stuff set up online and I am a purveyor of satire/news exclusively on that medium together with work offline in the more traditional formats.
Then again I also did ‘hyperlocal’ long before the term was invented. Ahead of my time you think Sarah? Nah…that’s just what constituted the real thing back in those waning years. Yes the pay was awful even then, but it was how I made my friends and I saw some telling sights, even the odd bit of what I felt was beautiful. That’s why I still rove, albeit somewhat less than before.
Better than earning ten times as much money and pissing about in the news offices all day drinking weak Nescafé, perhaps vying with office politics together with a bully manager or two eh?
George Bernard Shaw once wrote ‘Youth is wasted on the young.’ – that’s damn right, but I’d like to think my youth was somewhat less wasted than the youths of most graduates entering journalism and youngsters already in the churnalist factory in the new century.
-Pete @ DirtyGarnet.com
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Thanks for taking the time to comment Peter. I will confess I’m finding it hard to enter a conversation with you as it’s increasingly difficult to understand where you’re coming from with these rants due to lack of context.
Perhaps you could tell me a bit more about the ‘hyperlocal’ thing you did ‘in those waning years’? Or publish some profile information somewhere so I can understand who I’m speaking with?
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If the ‘new journalism’ ends up anything like the ‘new politics’ then I won’t be a part of it…
Except I am apparently. Because ‘new media’ constitutes new stuff set up online and I am a purveyor of satire/news exclusively on that medium together with work offline in the more traditional formats.
Then again I also did ‘hyperlocal’ long before the term was invented. Ahead of my time you think Sarah? Nah…that’s just what constituted the real thing back in those waning years. Yes the pay was awful even then, but it was how I made my friends and I saw some telling sights, even the odd bit of what I felt was beautiful. That’s why I still rove, albeit somewhat less than before.
Better than earning ten times as much money and pissing about in the news offices all day drinking weak Nescafé, perhaps vying with office politics together with a bully manager or two eh?
George Bernard Shaw once wrote ‘Youth is wasted on the young.’ – that’s damn right, but I’d like to think my youth was somewhat less wasted than the youths of most graduates entering journalism and youngsters already in the churnalist factory in the new century.
-Pete @ DirtyGarnet.com
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Peter Demain is a pseudonym. My actual name Googled would show more by way of ‘ordinary’ journalism as opposed to the satirical.
My work tends to the specific and in-depth – and (given that anyone with a brain can get my locality through IP address) detailing it would speed up vastly a probably inevitable unmasking of who I am. Nightjack’s carelessness springs to mind here. Call me a coward, but I don’t think it wise when you have friends in the trade that would frown on a sudden turn to satire with negative implications. Same for staff of certain other satirical media – many are journalists too, and don’t reveal identities for what I just outlined.
To your twitter response: If a blog is not for comments then what is it for? Why are comments even turned on? I was led to believe that blogs were meant for interaction as “social media”, and that good replies to one’s comments are a way of ensuring greater visits as it shows you listen to what people say. A lot of your colleagues at the Guardian seem to share this view; commenting on their own articles.
I made a comparison between followers and comments – I did not make assertions on what this blog was ‘about’. Don’t you think you read into a simple observation a little too much?
-Pete @ DirtyGarnet.com
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Peter Demain is a pseudonym. My actual name Googled would show more by way of ‘ordinary’ journalism as opposed to the satirical.
My work tends to the specific and in-depth – and (given that anyone with a brain can get my locality through IP address) detailing it would speed up vastly a probably inevitable unmasking of who I am. Nightjack’s carelessness springs to mind here. Call me a coward, but I don’t think it wise when you have friends in the trade that would frown on a sudden turn to satire with negative implications. Same for staff of certain other satirical media – many are journalists too, and don’t reveal identities for what I just outlined.
To your twitter response: If a blog is not for comments then what is it for? Why are comments even turned on? I was led to believe that blogs were meant for interaction as “social media”, and that good replies to one’s comments are a way of ensuring greater visits as it shows you listen to what people say. A lot of your colleagues at the Guardian seem to share this view; commenting on their own articles.
I made a comparison between followers and comments – I did not make assertions on what this blog was ‘about’. Don’t you think you read into a simple observation a little too much?
-Pete @ DirtyGarnet.com
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I did not say a blog is not for comments. I said high commenting levels was not the point for me. Quality conversation and debate is the point and I don’t find that possible with someone who hides their identity.
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Not to pry…but why are you online at all? If it’s a prerequisite for people to provide their true identities when debating with you online then you need to consider the level of online debate where that actually occurs: A tiny proportion of the total.
Something about Mohammad and a mountain or horses and water spring to mind here.
-Pete
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Not to pry…but why are you online at all? If it’s a prerequisite for people to provide their true identities when debating with you online then you need to consider the level of online debate where that actually occurs: A tiny proportion of the total.
Something about Mohammad and a mountain or horses and water spring to mind here.
-Pete
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