Outside the bubble
In the days when most of the traffic to ncpr.org came from our core radio audience, the conversation on the site was remarkably quiet, usually civil, and frankly--kind of thin. It must be some Norwegian bachelor farmer-shy folk kind of thing. But we have been getting our stories out beyond our website for some time now, into a more general audience via syndication on other news and community sites. Of the top five stories in the last 30 days, all have been heavily driven by traffic from outside sources, most notably from North Country Now, the online companion to the weekly paper North Country This Week based in Potsdam, and newzjunky, an online-only news aggregation site based in Watertown.
This is good. One of our top goals is to build the public media audience by getting our work in front of new eyes and ears. And it is also illuminating. Outside the bubble of public radio's "usual suspects," the North Country is much more angry and divided. Following the comment threads on the syndicated stories, all the fissures that divide North Country neighbors are writ plain: poor vs. affluent, born-here vs came-here, village vs back road, upstate vs downstate, private sector vs public, town vs gown.
When we think of "hot button" issues in the media, we tend to think big: climate change, status of marriage, financial meltdown, war and peace. It is a useful corrective to note that while all our reporting on climate change issues over the years has brought in a handful of comments, our recent story on the coming ban on open trash burning has brought in 15 pages of comments over two days. Carbon re-uptake hardware, we don't got--burn barrels we do. The collapse of international financial institutions seems far away, while the woes of Hacketts play out just down the road. While the tone of the online conversation is often regrettable, the cooler view would do well to take into account the "hot." To paraphrase Wendell Berry, the neighbors we're supposed to love are the one's we've actually got.
posted by Dale Hobson @ 9/24/2009
5 comments
5 Comments:
I would like to point out that it is nice to see the whole Redcoats v. Revolutionaries issue being well off the table these days.
Alan
[to your south-west]
Kingston
Bravo to the interplay of people with real burn barrels AND others with real hybrid cars (or whatever). We "usual suspects" --I'm a member of all three Public Radio stations I listen to -- do need reminders that not EVERY one of our neighbors even cares about "buying organic" or recycling. Your response is thoughtful and realistic.
And so it goes...
If you're poor, with no security for retirement, pension, etc., it's hard to get too excited about losing three years off your life becasue of burn barrell smoke. I'd rather be able to put a tank of gas in my car every month, so fulfill my obligations. I don't have hot water unless I make a wood fire. Yes, the nights everyone takes a abath and we catch the dishes up means I go to sleep smelling wood smoke. But my neighbnor doesn't complain, and I listen to his kid waste gas and noise on a 4-wheeler. Such is the price of neighborliness. I would warrant that I live a greener life- old car, used clothes and shoes, no cell phone or electronic gadgets beyond a computer, than someone who takes their trash to the sidewalk. I take cans and bottles to the dump 3 times a year if i can afford it. The debates in our country where "dissent is the highest form of patriotism"- (what's up with that?) are so out there- and then we get something like burn barrels- and you feel like such a loser for disagreeing- but do these people know what it's like to buy gas and milk and all? Thank you, Naomi
Being poor doesn't mean having to swallow breathing smoke. I prize my health even if I have no disposable income. Burn barrels are foul. Woodburning is foul. I live across the street from a "green" family who want the whole world to know how much they care about the environment. Their bumper stickers say so. But they cut down healthy trees to burn (green) in their stove, drive their little princess the half mile to school because she's too proud to walk or ride the school bus, and probably put more miles on their several vehicles in a day than I do in a month, just to occupy themselves. They choke me out of my home some days. If I can burn cleaner fuel, so can well-off soccer moms and dads.
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