From UrbanTulsa.com
Originally published by Urban Tulsa Weekly Thursday, February 02, 2006
©2006 Urban Tulsa Weekly.
http://www.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=3107
High Tech Town Criers
Tulsa's news bloggers help provide a personalized, inside look at how the city really works
by Michael D. Bates
It's 5:45 on a Thursday evening at
They aren't here on behalf of any newspaper, radio station, or TV station, but they are here as reporters. After the meeting, each one will assemble his notes, look through his photos, and edit his video and audio to put together a report.
When they're ready, they'll submit their reports, not to an editor, but directly to their readers. They’re bloggers, and they're using an emerging medium of communication to keep an eye on local government, to fill in the gaps in mainstream media coverage of local government, and to advocate on behalf of the city they love.
Citizen journalism is nothing new. There have been pamphleteers as long as there have been printing presses. What's new is how easy and inexpensive it is for someone with something to say to make it available for anyone to read.
Bobby Holt launched Tulsa Topics (www.tulsatopics.com) in December 2004. Tulsa Chiggers (chiggers.blogspot.com) emerged in February 2005. Steve Roemerman's "Roemerman on Record" first appeared last March (roemerman.blogspot.com), as did MeeCiteeWurkor's blog (www.meeciteewurkor.com).
Paul Romine, blogging as Mad Okie, added a blog to his Living on Tulsa Time website (www.livingontulsatime.com/blog) the same month, and David Schuttler began blogging at his Our Tulsa World website (www.tulsaworld.cc) last August.
(OkiePundit, a pseudonymous insider writing about state and local politics from a left-of-center perspective at alfalfa.blogspot.com, began blogging in September 2002, but has been on hiatus since last March. Joe Kelley, new morning host of KRMG, brought a blog - www.thesakeofargument.com - with him from his previous gig at WBAP in
Most of these blogs started life mainly as commentary on news items reported by the mainstream media. Over time, as these bloggers attended public meetings that were of interest to them, they began to post their own accounts of what took place, not only providing details that the daily paper’s reporter omitted, but in many cases providing the only written account of what took place.
Holt and Schuttler began bringing their own cameras, camcorders, and digital audio recorders to meetings, then posting audio and video on their blogs. In recent months, Holt has posted audio of a City Council committee meeting on Mayor Bill LaFortune's proposal to fund new hangars for American Airlines, Tulsans Defending Democracy's press conference, reacting to the withdrawal of the at-large councilor initiative petition, and the groundbreaking ceremony for the new arena. Holt has also done a series of Tulsa Topics podcasts, combining music, his own commentary, and audio from public meetings.
Schuttler has posted video from a Republican mayoral debate, various meetings of the Tulsa Airport Improvements Trust, LaFortune's series of town hall meetings about his Third Penny tax plan, and Medlock's east
Roemerman interviewed City Council candidate Theresa Buchert, who also happens to be the wife of the assistant director of the City of
Holt wrote about the first meeting of the Citizens' Commission on City Government, at which former mayors Rodger Randle and Susan Savage, former councilor Rob Gardner, and City Auditor Phil Wood expressed their opposition to the concept of at-large councilors. The Tulsa World, which has been editorializing in support of at-large councilors for more than a year, didn’t bother to report on this high-profile opposition to their pet project.
Holt published a timeline of the push for at-large councilors, showing the interaction between World editorials and news coverage and the activities of Tulsans for Better Government. Holt also reported on the company that was collecting signatures for the at-large proposal and initiative petitions for the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and eminent domain reform.
Mad as Heck, in a Constructive Way
If you ask these bloggers how they got into this pursuit, the story is pretty uniform. Each became involved in local civic matters for one reason or another then discovered blogging as a way to tell the story that wasn't being told by the mainstream media.
The
Another anonymous blogger, MeeCiteeWurkor, is anonymous because he is, in fact, an employee of the City of
Although MeeCiteeWurkor's blog is mainly commentary on local news, two of his most popular articles are first-hand reports: one about last December's City Council debate over allowing more city employees to unionize, and one about the gay pride exhibit at Tulsa's Central Library.
Schuttler lived in the target area of the
In 2004, he began posting video of public meetings, particularly those involving the airport, and began to branch out into other issues. The south
Although Schuttler was one of the first of the group to write about local issues on the web, he was one of the last to start a blog. He says the blog has improved his productivity: "I love the blog form. It is much easier than having to make a new webpage for every subject. This kept me from posting a lot of items I would like to have.
"Now I just put the main part on one page with links to other content, and this can be done by simply logging in from any computer."
The noise abatement program also got the attention of Romine who owned a home in one of the affected neighborhoods. He's also the owner of a pit bull and opposes legislative proposals to ban the dogs solely on the basis of their breed. For both issues, he hopes to use his blog "to tell the other side of the story."
Roemerman came to local politics through his interest in national and state issues. He got involved as a Republican precinct official and a campaign volunteer: John Sullivan for Congress, Steve Largent for Governor, and Right to Work. He got turned on to local politics in the fall of 2003 by listening to KFAQ's Michael DelGiorno—in particular, it was the talk of Vision 2025 and the 71st and Harvard zoning controversy that got his attention.
The effort to recall Jim Mautino, his city councilor, moved him to start a blog, if for no other reason than to give him the chance "to vent [his] feelings in a positive manner."
Holt was a block captain in the Lewis Crest Neighborhood Association (LCNA) and webmaster of the association's website (lewiscrest.org). He became aware of BatesLine when his neighborhood held an informational meeting about Vision 2025. He thought the blog format would be ideal for keeping residents up-to-date on neighborhood news, so in September 2003 he added a blog to the LCNA website.
Holt went on to set up a website (hffz.org) for Homeowners for Fair Zoning, the group formed in response to the city's questionable invalidation of the zoning protest petition filed to stop F&M Bank from building a 71st and Harvard branch, the issue that broadened his interest beyond the borders of his own neighborhood.
"It was a real eye-opening experience for me seeing
Although he already was involved in two websites, Holt felt limited by the need to represent the interests of the group on those sites, so he launched Tulsa Topics as a place for his own voice.
Holt has a grand vision of what
"Being a one-man shop has its limitations, which is why I like seeing a Tulsa Blogging community form and hopefully will continue to grow," he says. "As an individual there's only so many gaps I can fill, but as a group the possibilities are limitless . . .
"In my mind, I'm envisioning something like a working newspaper, radio or TV station," says Holt. "Each of us has our own interests that we can write about as well as strengths to be exploited and weaknesses to be minimized. There are too many battles in
In pursuit of his vision, Holt set up tulsabloggers.net, a webpage that provides links to the latest entries on each of these blogs, to Topix.net's index of stories that mention
Holt also set up a mailing list to make it easy for the group to discuss story ideas, coordinate coverage to make sure someone is present at significant events, and share technical tips. There have been some real-life gatherings over coffee, and in the future he has hopes of producing a weekly podcast roundtable discussion on local issues. (The Northern Alliance Radio Network, a group of Minnesota-based conservative bloggers, has been doing this sort of thing for about three years, with a weekly three-hour radio broadcast which is then repeated through the week over the Internet.)
What's In It for Them?
This collection of
On national issues, most describe themselves as conservatives, but not necessarily Republican loyalists. On local issues they are all aligned with Tulsa's growing bipartisan grass roots reform movement, a loose coalition that includes Homeowners for Fair Zoning, Tulsans Defending Democracy, Tulsans for Election Integrity (the anti-recall group), Tulsans for Fair and Clean Government, and the South Tulsa Citizens' Coalition, and which is represented in city government by Councilors Jack Henderson, Chris Medlock, Roscoe Turner, and Jim Mautino.
As Roemerman puts it, "Seven years ago I would have only ever voted for a Republican. For local politics at least, I now know that to be a bit silly. Locally, I'm still a Republican, but more than that, I'm anti-good-ol'-boy, pro-neighborhood, and pro-downtown reform. As such I'd have no problem voting for Roscoe Turner, Jack Henderson, or Al Nichols--all Democrats."
Although the
Holt says, "Most citizens in
By posting meeting notices and reporting on events that matter to each of these grass roots groups, Tulsa's bloggers have facilitated communication between them, making someone concerned about the south Tulsa toll bridge, for instance, aware of problems with PSO tree trimming in midtown, eminent domain issues in north Tulsa, and problems with the Public Works Department impeding new development in east Tulsa.
This cross-pollination has also made grass roots activists aware of patterns of influence at City Hall and the
That's how a seemingly esoteric issue like at-large councilors becomes so important to these activists, who don't view it in isolation, but as a part of the ongoing struggle - will the City of
Given their alignment with the burgeoning reform movement, it’s no surprise that
Their appreciation for Medlock has another dimension: He's a blogger, too. Medlock launched medblogged.blogspot.com (subtitled "Less than Secret Dispatches from the Alleged Leader of the Medlock Cartel") in November 2004 as a way to set forth his ideas and issues and to respond to his political adversaries, unfiltered by the news media. His initial post dealt with the controversial reappointment of
Local news blogging demands a lot of energy and time - estimates range from a few hours to more than 20 hours a week - and there's not much in the way of compensation, beyond personal satisfaction and positive feedback from readers, along with the knowledge, gleaned from their server logs, that they have readers at City Hall, the Tulsa World, and the FAA.
Communications consultant Jeff Faria, a Hoboken, N.J.-based local blogger (mistersnitch.blogspot.com) believes in the potential of blogs to supplant print media as a source of local news but also writes that citizen media is "too much work to do sans paycheck…. Citizens will do it on a lark, but they won't answer the bell every time if they're making sacrifices every single time they do." Faria has some thoughts on how local blogging might be funded - for example, Google paying local bloggers on a per-viewer basis to provide content for local portals.
Why do
MeeCiteeWurkor has learned to pace himself. "I spend an absurd amount of time sometimes on this blog, but I know my limits. I can sense very quickly when it becomes burdensome or causes stress elsewhere. That's when I hang up the keyboard for a week or so . . .
"I decided a year ago, when meeciteewurkor was in its infancy, that no matter what, I would never give up on my site. There are ups and downs, just like in every endeavor. And in the end, if no one is reading, I'll still be writing."
The bottom line for
So are they optimistic about
"There has always been a group of dedicated people fighting for neighborhoods and for fair governance," Roemerman says. "Their long-fought effort is now paying off.
"A broader spectrum of people in
Says Holt, "There've been a few days my optimism has been rocked. Probably the biggest disappointment to me is to see a city with so much potential continually make all the wrong decisions for its future. After awhile the process can become kind of disheartening, but then I remember there's always spring and
Same question to you, Paul Romine? "Get back to me after the elections."
The Birth of News Blogs
Blogging gained momentum as a news-oriented medium following the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks on
An offhand comment by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott at Sen. Strom Thurmond's retirement reception in December 2002 was overlooked by the mainstream media, but blogs kept the story alive, ultimately bringing mainstream media attention to bear, and leading to Lott's resignation as leader.
Blogs played an important role in the 2004 presidential election, providing a way for ordinary citizens to fact-check and rebut traditional media outlets. Bloggers were granted credentials for both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
Bloggers with a knowledge of typewriters and typography exposed as a fraud a memo alleged to have been written by George W. Bush's superior officer during his service in the Texas Air National Guard in the early '70s, a memo that was presented as an authentic document by Dan Rather on CBS's 60 Minutes II. The resulting "blogstorm" resulted in the dismissal of CBS News producer Mary Mapes.
An American Presbyterian missionary based in
The ease of setting up and publishing a blog provided an outlet for thousands of politically aware Americans to voice their opinions on foreign policy, immigration, and Supreme Court nominations, so much so that the "market" for national news commentary is pretty well saturated.
A handful of blogs attract high traffic numbers - University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds (www.instapundit.com) and syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin (www.michellemalkin.com) each get more than 100,000 visitors a day - with the rest of the national news and opinion bloggers hoping for a coveted link from a more popular blog to drive readers their way.
But even superstar bloggers like Reynolds recognize local blogging as an important part of the blogosphere. When a local story breaks, the A-list bloggers link to those who have been plodding faithfully on the local beat to provide their readers with first-hand perspective and information. The difficulty is that in many places, even in large cities, local bloggers have yet to emerge.
Some bloggers have seen this gap as an opportunity to distinguish themselves. Scott Sala, a New York City-based blogger whose writing on national politics at slantpoint.com earned him credentials to cover the 2004 Republican National Convention, came to feel he was just one of a crowded field of conservative bloggers opining on the latest story from
Sala wrote last summer about his change of emphasis: "I was tired of hopping up and down crying, 'Me! Me! Me!' I care about NYC and frankly there are enough people on my side talking up the big issues, that one more voice is unnecessary. For it is the little, more local issues that need blogs to give them their 'legs.'"
Sala switched the emphasis of his blog from national to local issues, posting interviews with candidates and first-hand coverage of political events leading up to last fall’s municipal elections in
Local blogging can also fill a gap in the mainstream media's coverage of local government. Broadcast media outlets have a limited amount of time and the need to attract a wide audience, so their coverage of local politics is necessarily over-simplified and focused on the sensational. School board and city council elections are completely ignored; a few sound bites might be devoted to a mayoral election. Despite their impact on quality of life, planning commissions and water boards are not telegenic enough to warrant any time on the ten o'clock news.
Local newspapers can provide more depth than broadcast news, but they are limited by the number of reporters and column inches available for City Hall coverage. In cities with competing papers, the drive to be first and best to cover a story works to the reader's advantage, spurring papers to cover more stories and cover them more thoroughly.
But in most American cities, newspaper competition isn't a factor. Even worse, your city's monopoly daily may be locally owned by a family that has financial interests and social connections that will tend to bias its coverage. Important stories may get swept under the rug, and coverage may be controlled by a hidden agenda.
If You’ve Been Hiding from the Internet . . .
A blogger, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is someone who writes a blog, a shortened form of the phrase "web log." In its purest form a blog can be used to log interesting items found while surfing the World Wide Web - a title, a brief description, and a hyperlink to the item of interest. Someone might begin a blog for his own use, just to keep track of websites he wants to be able to find again in the future, but even in that simple form it’s valuable to other websurfers by pointing them to sites that they might never find on their own.
Two things differentiate a blog from a simple web page. One is its sequential aspect. Blog entries are typically presented in reverse chronological order - the most recent entry at the top of the page. The other is the ease of adding new content.
Online journals have been around since the beginning of the World Wide Web (and even before), but they required a high degree of technical expertise to create and add content to web pages. About six years ago, web-based content
Blog
The infrastructure of the blogsophere creates a conversation among bloggers and between a blogger and his readers, and that represents another advantage of blogs over basic websites. Built into most blog software is the ability for readers to post comments on each entry. And when one blogger posts an entry referring to an item on another blog, a "trackback" is created automatically, pointing readers of the linked item to further discussion on the topic. Permalinks provide a permanent reference point for each blog entry, so that links to an item don't break when an item moves from the front page into the archives.
Technorati.com provides a specialized blog search service, making it easy to find bloggers interested in a particular topic, and allowing a blogger to find out which other bloggers are linking to his site.
Blogrolling.com provides a simple way for a blogger to build and display a collection of links to his favorite blogs, encouraging the development of blog alliances.
A wide variety of uses have been invented for the blog format. Some blogs are online diaries: romantic exploits, kids, jobs, everyday life. Other bloggers gather links to news articles. Some use it to collect links to websites about their profession or hobby. Businesses, neighborhood associations, and political candidates use blogs to post press releases and announcements.
Get Your Own Blog
Or, How to keep city and county government on its toes
The more the merrier. If you want to become a
Google's Blogger service (www.blogger.com) allows you to create a blog in the blogspot.com domain. (You can also use Blogger to publish a blog on your own webserver space.) The service is free, and it takes about five minutes to set up a blog. Blogger was once the Yugo of blogging systems, but in the last year they've added features and made major improvements to the user interface. By one count, there are over 14 million blogs running on Blogger.
WordPress.com (www.wordpress.com) allows you to create a free blog using the open-source WordPress blog
Typepad (www.typepad.com) is based on the popular and sophisticated Movable Type blog
Live Journal (www.livejournal.com) is focused on social networking, making it easy to create networks of friends or blogging communities. Entries can be public or limited to your circle of friends. Membership is free, but for a fee you can upgrade to advanced features.
Xanga (www.xanga.com) and MySpace (www.myspace.com) are two more social networking blog services, aimed at the younger set.
MSN Spaces (spaces.msn.com/) – Microsoft gets into the act, as it was bound to do.
Choose Your Passion
Other
Although there are only a few Tulsans blogging about local news, there are plenty of Tulsans writing blogs on all sorts of subjects. Here's a sampling:
Danny Carlton (www.jacklewis.net) and Don Singleton (donsingleton.blogspot.com) post frequently on the day's big news stories. Singleton is well known to Tulsa-area technogeeks as the long-time head of the Tulsa Computer Society.
No Blog of Significance (friedpie.blogspot.com) - Dan Paden started this blog to post a weekly summary of the young adult Sunday School class he teaches at
Counseling Notes (www.mcelroycounseling.com/notes/) – Christian counselor and sometime Baptist pastor Bowden McElroy posts comments and links to articles on marriage, divorce, and parenting.
Hooah Wife (hooahwife.blogspot.com) – Greta Perry is an Army wife raising three boys in Owasso while her husband works with the Corps of Engineers on the reconstruction of
Route 66 News (www.route66news.org) – Reports on events, road trips, and historic preservation all along the
New Black Thought (newblackthought.blogspot.com) -- Eddie Huff, chairman of the Tulsa Black Republicans, writes mainly about race and public policy.
Audience of One (audienceof1.blogspot.com) – Voted 2005's most inspirational
Marsupial Mom (marsupialmom.blog-city.com) writes on life as a homeschooling mother of four.
Beyond the immediate vicinity of
Cookson Hills-based Lynn Sislo (www.lynnspace.com) writes a frequently-linked and widely-read blog on classical music, art, and literature.
Mike Hermes, from Little Axe, publishes OkieDoke (www.okiedoke.com), which focuses on state news and politics. He's been a leader in forging an
And there are a few locally-focused blogs that aren't about local politics:
TulsaTime (community.livejournal.com/tulsatime/) – a group blog on LiveJournal about all things
Lost
Signs of
Abandoned