Hyperlocal news sites break new territory within journalism

by Leah Vandenberg

Seven journalism students from Loyalist College broke new ground when they launched their hyperlocal news websites.

Seven third-year students in the online segment of Loyalist College’s Journalism: Online, Print and Broadcast program broke new ground Tuesday.

Each student launched their own hyperlocal website.

Hyperlocal is defined as journalism that focuses on a specific geographic area, and has a target audience. Each student’s website is dedicated to something in the Quinte region, from high school and college sports, to the environment to what’s happening in Prince Edward County. Each story is delivered on multiple platforms.

Jane Harrison, the dean of media studies at Loyalist College said the launch is a wonderful celebration of hard work.

“It takes a lot of thought in terms of design, analysis of audience and bringing in all the different platforms in one space so it’s all functional,” she said.

Robert Washburn, professor of e-journalism, led the project. He said they are now all independent publishers.

“The students are entrepreneurs, who create content, manage the sites and sell sponsorships,” he said.

Ashliegh Gehl who launched The Belleville Observer, which covers the political beat in Bellevill, said her website will have more surface-based content.

“It’ll be more long form, and not focusing on briefs of blurbs,” said Ashliegh Gehl.

Many of the sites feature live-blogging and Twitter features, allowing the audience to be engaged in an event.

Matt Kerr launched Quinte Greenspace, which focuses on environmental and natural news that matters to the Quinte Region.

Gehl said she’ll take the platforms as they come while Kerr said his site is more picture and video driven, but will still be multi-platform.

“By having it covered on four mediums, I service a range of viewers,” Kerr said.

The students constructed the sites themselves, and will maintain them for the next four months. It’s part of a final year project. Students are expected to address the three main points of e-journalism, which is to educate, engage and empower their audience. Pieces will vary from profiles to features, and hard news to analyses.