Brighton and Hove Community Reporters: 'Technology is an important enabler, but newsletters have been out there for years'

Local volunteers are to be supported in reporting their local communities, as part of a new training venture launching in Brighton.

Last week potential community reporters gathered in Brighton's Community Base, to hear about IT services organisation SCIP's plans for growing grassroots local media. I was invited along to talk about my perspective as a journalist tracking the media industry, with my interpretation of community reporting in action.

Mark Walker, who runs the Brighton & Hove Community Reporters scheme with project development worker Amy Riley, told me that he is not sure of the relationship between community reporting and journalism, or the exact shape it will take.  

The group's priorities, Walker says, are to improve community cohesion; build the quality of information shared; and to make more voices heard.

SCIP will focus on specific neighbourhoods in East Brighton, homeless people and people with disabilities, with support from the Working Together Project and the Friends Centre, and links with regional newspaper the Argus and the local BBC.

But Walker is clear that he is not building something from scratch: he's developing existing projects, and letting them grow from the bottom-up.

To that end, he is not sure how it fits into new hyperlocal plans springing up around the country. "Technology is an important enabler, but the community newsletters have been out there for years," he says.

The Brighton & Hove Community Reporters group will then, he says, work with groups in Moulsecoomb, Coldean and Bevendean, helping them to establish a web presence and learn new reporting skills.

Reporters' roles
The volunteers will receive some basic advice for staying safe as reporting, and legal tips, but not journalistic training, he says. They will also be helped with finding and locating resources.

Claire Jones-Hughes, who already blogs for the Argus as the 'Contented Mummy', is hoping to contribute to the scheme: "Being a non-professional writer or correspondent in your community can be a lonely experience," she says. "Networks such as this one, will, I hope, bring everyone together to reinforce our place in local media, but also raise awareness and network with other writers or publishers of local information.

Another interested volunteer is outreach officer for the Brighton Peace & Environment Centre, Michael Creedy. He describes himself as a "community activist" and is keen to use the project as a way of communicating some of the work he's involved in - a number of environmental and housing projects.

"I feel very interested in it [but] I don't see myself as a reporter," he says, adding that he has been experimenting with Twitter and though reluctant, may give blogging a go in the future. Community stories can provide a different perspective or "an unusual snapshot," he says.
 
National plans
Walker is planning to copy elements of a similar project in Manchester: the non-profit social enterprise People's Voice Media, which set up well-received community reporting training projects.

It has developed Social Media Centres and built a "distribution network"; with partners including the BBC, charity the Media Trust and local universities, its aim is to become the 'Reuters of the community' "by providing local content and independent reporting - by communities for themselves and a wider audience".

Walker's aim, then is "not to copy but be inspired by" by the Manchester group, which he sees as a community reporting pioneer. "The goal is to create a connection between us, where reporters feel part of a national network," he says.

Anyone interested in getting involved can find more details and a registration form at http://bit.ly/cZI5mZ. The next Brighton & Hove Community Reporters meeetup will take place on Wednesday 24 March.

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