New Voices: The Lexington Commons Seungahn Nah, Assistant Professor of Community Communications, Dept. of Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky

The Lexington Commons

Seungahn Nah, Assistant Professor of Community Communications, Dept. of Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky

• Lexington, KY

CONTACT INFO

Seungahn Nah
Dept. of Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky
514 Garrigus Building
Lexington, KY, 40546-0215
(859) 257-1509
E-mail

A University of Kentucky partnership will build a digital neighborhood newspaper. While it will highlight Lexington news, the leaders also hope to build a sense of community across lines of race, ethnicity and income. The university’s Department of Community and Leadership Development is spearheading the project in partnership with the University’s Cooperative Extension Service, which will help recruit citizen reporters, and the Department of Agricultural Communications, which will launch and maintain the project’s Web site.

Check back for future news and updates.
November 2008

Look Out: Lexington Commons is a Comin’

November 2008

When Seungahn Nah got his doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin, he studied with Lew Friedland, the creator of the Madison Commons, a hyperlocal citizen site funded by New Voices in 2005. Nah was inspired by this model for community news.

Now a professor at University of Kentucky, Nah created the Kentucky Citizen Media Project (KCMP) and with New Voices funding will launch Lexington Commons, which Nah said will be a “nonprofit, digital neighborhood newspaper, created by the people, for the people.“

According to Nah, “Lexington Commons will give new, diverse voices a local outlet, encourage dialogue among citizens and build community through communication.“ The project has begun recruiting and training citizen journalists who will contribute stories, photos, videos, blogs, and other content.

Over the summer, KCMP hired a graduate student (who has a B.A. in journalism) to design and implement tutorials for citizen journalists. These sessions will be offered quarterly, but Nah hopes to eventually host monthly workshops. These sessions will cover the basics: news value, writing, interviewing, computer-assisted reporting and ethics. The workshop will also provide extensive background on the history of Lexington and major issues facing the city.

Nah says five people signed up for the first training, which was promoted through the university, community media groups and the project’s MySpace and Facebook pages. Participants in the initial trainings will create the content that will be posted on the project’s site when it’s up. Nah expect that to happen by the end of October 2008. Graduates of three-part series will be given a “citizen reporter press pass” which Nah hopes will seal their commitment to contribute to the site in the future.

Also over the summer, KCMP hired a computer science grad student to design the Web site, which is in the final stages of design. KCMP originally hoped to use BlogSpot, a site created through the University of Kentucky’s Department of Community and Leadership Development, “but it didn’t provide enough space for the kind of Web 2.0 technologies and content the site will feature, like podcasting audio and video files,“ said Nah. Instead, he purchased a new server for $4,500 and reached out to the site developer of Madison Commons, a decision he’s certain will enhance the project’s technical capabilities. The server will be hosted at U.K.‘s College of Agriculture.

“We have brainstormed some ideas to attract audience to the site,“ said Nah. “The Lexington Herald-Leader has expressed interest in a partnership. They can post what our citizen reporters write and vice versa. Once we have a partnership with the major newspaper company in town, we can more easily publicize our project.“

In addition, Lexington Commons is working with the cooperative extensive service whose county station agents work on a wide range of community issues beyond agriculture and natural resources. The site plans to host neighborhood association newsletter content and a special section dedicated to news and information from local nonprofits. These services will widen the circle of interest in the site. “We’re wide open to the public,“ said Nah. “I don’t think there is a magic number in terms of audience visiting our citizen media site or number of citizen reporters or number of posts. What matters, in my opinion, is how we can make a news audience that can deliver news and information and discuss issues in the community.“

Back to Home Page | E-mail This | Print This

• • Mission Contact Info J-Lab site Staff Links • Guidelines How to Apply FAQs Advisory Board • List of Grantees 2007 Grantee Updates 2006 Grantee Updates 2005 Grantee Updates • Citizens Media Spotlights Good Ideas Glossary • News Releases News about Citizens Media Speeches • • Blog Ask Questions Share Your Story • Sign up for New Voices e-mail updates!	The Lexington Commons Seungahn Nah, Assistant Professor of Community Communications, Dept. of Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky • Lexington, KY CONTACT INFO Seungahn Nah Dept. of Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky 514 Garrigus Building Lexington, KY, 40546-0215 (859) 257-1509 E-mail A University of Kentucky partnership will build a digital neighborhood newspaper. While it will highlight Lexington news, the leaders also hope to build a sense of community across lines of race, ethnicity and income. The university’s Department of Community and Leadership Development is spearheading the project in partnership with the University’s Cooperative Extension Service, which will help recruit citizen reporters, and the Department of Agricultural Communications, which will launch and maintain the project’s Web site. Check back for future news and updates. November 2008 Look Out: Lexington Commons is a Comin’ November 2008 When Seungahn Nah got his doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin, he studied with Lew Friedland, the creator of the Madison Commons, a hyperlocal citizen site funded by New Voices in 2005. Nah was inspired by this model for community news. Now a professor at University of Kentucky, Nah created the Kentucky Citizen Media Project (KCMP) and with New Voices funding will launch Lexington Commons, which Nah said will be a “nonprofit, digital neighborhood newspaper, created by the people, for the people.“ According to Nah, “Lexington Commons will give new, diverse voices a local outlet, encourage dialogue among citizens and build community through communication.“ The project has begun recruiting and training citizen journalists who will contribute stories, photos, videos, blogs, and other content. Over the summer, KCMP hired a graduate student (who has a B.A. in journalism) to design and implement tutorials for citizen journalists. These sessions will be offered quarterly, but Nah hopes to eventually host monthly workshops. These sessions will cover the basics: news value, writing, interviewing, computer-assisted reporting and ethics. The workshop will also provide extensive background on the history of Lexington and major issues facing the city. Nah says five people signed up for the first training, which was promoted through the university, community media groups and the project’s MySpace and Facebook pages. Participants in the initial trainings will create the content that will be posted on the project’s site when it’s up. Nah expect that to happen by the end of October 2008. Graduates of three-part series will be given a “citizen reporter press pass” which Nah hopes will seal their commitment to contribute to the site in the future. Also over the summer, KCMP hired a computer science grad student to design the Web site, which is in the final stages of design. KCMP originally hoped to use BlogSpot, a site created through the University of Kentucky’s Department of Community and Leadership Development, “but it didn’t provide enough space for the kind of Web 2.0 technologies and content the site will feature, like podcasting audio and video files,“ said Nah. Instead, he purchased a new server for $4,500 and reached out to the site developer of Madison Commons, a decision he’s certain will enhance the project’s technical capabilities. The server will be hosted at U.K.‘s College of Agriculture. “We have brainstormed some ideas to attract audience to the site,“ said Nah. “The Lexington Herald-Leader has expressed interest in a partnership. They can post what our citizen reporters write and vice versa. Once we have a partnership with the major newspaper company in town, we can more easily publicize our project.“ In addition, Lexington Commons is working with the cooperative extensive service whose county station agents work on a wide range of community issues beyond agriculture and natural resources. The site plans to host neighborhood association newsletter content and a special section dedicated to news and information from local nonprofits. These services will widen the circle of interest in the site. “We’re wide open to the public,“ said Nah. “I don’t think there is a magic number in terms of audience visiting our citizen media site or number of citizen reporters or number of posts. What matters, in my opinion, is how we can make a news audience that can deliver news and information and discuss issues in the community.“ Back to Home Page \| E-mail This \| Print This


	New Voices is an initiative of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. J-Lab^TM is an incubator for innovative, participatory news experiments and is a center of American University's School of Communication in Washington, D.C. New Voices is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. Site design, programming and content by Hop Studios.