Community Journalism at its Best?

Hmm. I know I was gonna try to 'be nice' and 'not so negative' on this site, but for there to be hope for journalism, I have to point out things, ya know? Ok. The Silverton Appeal recently had an editorial (Join in our new holiday tradition) which I read, curious. It had come up in a Google News search for journalism. As I read, it sounded like a pretty basic idea (not necessarily a bad one), and then I got to this part.

From the editorial:

There will be nearly 400 community members’ faces – and nothing else – filling the front page for the final edition of 2005. In our minds, it’s community journalism at its best. People like to see their faces in the newspaper.

Um, sorry, nice try, but dropping a photo collage on your A1 once a year isn't 'community journalism at its best.' I'm not even sure if you can consider it community journalism. And the condescending tone of 'people like to see their faces in the newspaper' was ... well, it saddened me.

Basically, it sounds like this newspaper (probably suffering from staff cuts as much as the rest of the industry) got tired of putting together a 'best of the year' super article and decided it would be easier to dump a collage of mugshots on A1.

Oh, wait. Here's something interesting a few grafs later:

So pick up a copy next Wednesday. If you see yourself or someone you know or love, pick up a few copies.

Heh. Is it me or is that actually community journalism at its worst? Someone back me up? And no personal offense to the Silverton Appeal, but thinking like this needs to be talked about, I think, for journalism to have hope.

Technorati Tags: Daily Editorial Grassroots Journalism Newspapers Print