My proposed concept is a community-run ‘hyperlocal’* news website, dedicated to the SR2 geographical area of Sunderland.

Such hyperlocal news sites are springing up around (and outside) the United Kingdom, increasing access to the necessary technol-ogy and a zooming-out of mainstream local news the likely catalysts. BBC’s regional coverage, for example, is limited to a half-hour daily bulletin taking news from Tyneside, Teesside, Wearside, North York-shire and Cumbria - unless extraordinary, SR2 news will not feature. Similarly, SR2’s most local news provider, the Sunderland Echo, cov-ers an approximate 25 miles square radius, so leaving ‘hyperlocal’ areas like SR2 in something of a news deficit. That is the vacuum hyperlocal news sites like SR2 BLOG are beginning to inhabit.

Recognising the significant potential for hyperlocal networks of news, big mainstream media have arrived on the scene. Trinity Mirror, Associ-ated Northcliffe, the Guardian are all parents of a network of hyperlocal news sites, while ITN, Guardian Media Group and Johnston Press are in

talks over a hyperlocal consortia proposed by Ofcom and Digital Britain Report. Accounting for the engaged nature of the contributors and audi-ence, the news of these hyperlocal sites tends to be politically focused with most emphasis on the relevant local authority. Typical news items include planning applications to the Council, residents’ concerns, light-er events pieces and aggregated coverage from other news sources.*What is hyperlocal news? Hyperlocal news is information relevant to small communities and neighbourhoods (the postcode SR2, for ex-ample) often overlooked by mainstream media for reasons I will outline (in Why?).

SR2 BLOGa community-run news site for sunderland sr2

hyour news

Proposed concept

Concept document Josh halliday

mission statementSR2 BLOG will bring together like-minded engaged citizens whose concerns and interests can be effectively expressed on a collaborative website. The aim is for a so-cial news site; users (meaning publishers and visitors) contributing to a greater knowledge of Sunderland SR2, it’s residents, events, businesses and prospects.

Where?SR2 BLOG will publish news happening inside the SR2 postcode district of Sunderland. That’s roughly 4 miles square, in comparison to the Sunderland Echo patch (roughly 25 miles square.)

Specifically, the wards and neighbourhoods SR2 BLOG will cover are: - Hendon - Ashbrooke - Grangetown - Hillview - Ryhope - Thornhill

How?

SR2 BLOG will be initially entirely funded by advertising.

Advertisers will be businesses and organisations based in and around Sunderland SR2. Typical advertisers include: Student Diggs student accomodation provider, Pizzarama takeaway, Vaughan Hart financial advisers, The Rosedene pub and restaurant, Bodyline fitness centre, Chinese Kitchen restaurant and The Wild Bunch florist - all based in Sunderland SR2. SR2 BLOG will use three-click advertising inter-mediary, Addiply, to ensure advertisements site visitors see are directly

relevant. Addiply is fast becoming the advertisement host of choice for similar news sites inside and outside the UK.

Advertising will initially cost £2 per month. The rationale behind this is that SR2 BLOG has no pretences about the quantity of views it will get week-to-week - it’s an experimental venture not striving for sensational headlines in search engines, but a loyal userbase, and that takes time.

online centres in sunderland

How?continued...Advertising costs £2 per month, specifically, for a reason too. Here’s the maths: One year’s GoDaddy hosting (and domain ownership) of SR2 BLOG costs $67.58, that’s £40.59, give or take fluctuations in in-flation rates. For the foreseeable future, there will be four advertising places on SR2 BLOG, each costing the advertiser £2 per month; should four advertisements be placed for 12 months, that’s £96 in-come - paying off the first year of hosting (10/2009 - 10/2010), the second year of hosting (10/2010 - 10/2011) and with £14.88 left to cover overheads (christmas cards, etc.)

The idea is that SR2 BLOG will first be able to cover it’s costs, no

one in the UK hyperlocal space is yet making a viable living from such a website.

Over the next 12 months, SR2 BLOG will be an unsalaried part-time post for me, and have voluntary status for others wanting to con-tribute. For me, SR2 BLOG will reach ‘critical mass’ when there is at least four advertisers (advertising for a minimum of £2 per month) and two regular contributors. At that time, I will factor in the idea of paying a flat rate for (minimum of ) 300-word contributions. This rate would likely start at £5 for 300-word pieces.

why now?

02.

In October 2009, the Guardian announced the launch of their foray into local journalism with the project, Guardian Local, which will be a ‘small-scale experimental approach to local newsgathering,’ according to Director of Digital Content for Guardian News & Media, Emily Bell. Sarah Hartley, Guardian Local’s launch editor, said, ‘While researching developments at the grassroots of community journalism, I’ve been impressed by the range and depth of coverage from local websites and blogs. This experimental project reflects both the shifting nature of journalism and the reality on the ground’ and has said that the UK, specifically, is currently experiencing a ‘fast-changing local news land-scape.’ This ‘Big Media’ move into hyperlocal journalism follows on the back of hyperlocal news websites launched by Newsquest, Associated Northcliffe, Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror.

Research by Rachel Davis Mersey, published in Journalism Practice 3: 3, titled ‘Online News Users’ Sense of Community’, asserted that local news providers’ next move should be to explore the potential of the Web. ‘The challenge to local newspapers in light of dwindling circula-tion figures nationwide is to stay geographically relevant,’ Mersey said, adding, ‘Focusing on the potential of the Web to serve geographic com-munities should be the driver of future industry innovations and in-dustry-oriented research[...]With nearly limitless space constraints, the Web can offer newspapers the opportunity to provide expansive coverage of geographic areas without increased material and printing costs. This geographic focus can be amplified with additional report-ing, citizen-produced news, formal or informal weblogs, and additional etools.’ From panel discussions at the 2009 Society of Editors Confer-ence, lecturer in Journalism at University of Sunderland, Julie Bradford, similarly recorded, ‘All panel say hyperlocal is way forward.’

Whether the aforementioned ‘Big Media’ embarked on hyperlocal news sites excited at the opportunity and potential of such projects, or sim-ply to out-resource and square-off any independent start-ups is a moot

point. The point stands that dwindling resources - staff, time and money - at local and regional newspapers is likely to have an

averse effect on how well-informed the constituents are they affect to inform - as if local and regional news has

become zoomed-out, contributing to a de-localisation

of its news and a news vacuum in some neighbourhoods.

It is also relevant here to look at one of the likely direction of Internet news publishing. Analysing a breakdown of his hyperlocal news site’s content, NEast Philly’s Christopher Wink (www.neastphilly.com) noted, ‘We know there is not one solution for this sustainable news conver-sation, but participatory journalism sure seems like a big part of it to me.’ With the help of a Knight Foundation News Challenge grant, NEast Philly plans to create a ‘sustainable network of professionally trained citizen journalists to cover their own neighbourhood civic meetings and local events.’ Wink estimates around 40% of NEast Philly is cur-rently aggregated coverage, which he describes as ‘Making sure your readers know every link, story and conversation online that is relevant to your coverage[...]It will certainly become a big part of successful news-gatherers in the future.’ Wink’s Philadelphia project lends itself to what new media commentator, Jeff Jarvis, calls ‘networked journal-ism’ - ‘professionals and amateurs working together to get the real story, linking to each other across brands and old boundaries to share facts, questions, answers, ideas, perspectives. It recognises the com-plex relationship that will make news. And it focusses on the process more than the product.’

The future of online news - as Jarvis, Wink and many others see it - will be more of a conversation between publisher and ‘audience’. In We, The Media (2004), Dan Gillmor, purported, ‘Big media[...]treated the news as a lecture. We told you what the news was[...]Tomorrow’s news re-porting will be more of a conversation, or a seminar...’

East (and South) Sunderland, the area encompassing Sunderland SR2 and SR2 BLOG, is anecdotally the most vibrant region on Wear-side, with more community-focussed events, Area Forums and active (and growing) Residents’ Associations. There has never before been a news-oriented website for Sunderland SR2; everything looking for-ward, now seems an opportune time to ride both waves and aim for a respected news site that works hand-in-hand with its visitors to contribute to a greater knowledge of Sunderland SR2, it’s residents, events, businesses and prospects.

There are five common news sources for the news of a hyperlocal web-site. These are: - Minutes from council planning meetings (published in a darkened corner of the council website); - Emergency service voicebank; - Aggregated relevant coverage from other news sources; - Diary events; - Matters that arise during Residents’ Association meetings, police neighbourhood engagement meetings etc.

What News?(and where from?)

news sources23/10/09 - 12/12/09

news sourcespredicted for 2010

green: diary eventsorange: aggregated coverage

red: voicebankslight blue: council documents

dark blue: off-diarygrey: content of community meetings

green: diary eventsorange: aggregated coveragered: voicebankslight blue: council documentsdark blue: off-diarygrey: content of community meetings

EXAMPLES OF NEWS FEATURED

03.

expected growth

04.

All research considered, I have formulated the following expectation for the user growth of SR2 Blog 12 months from its launch in October 2009.

Calculating the percentage of hypothetical Sunderland-based users of SunderlandEcho.com, getting news about Sunderland and the sur-rounding region, I found that approximately 4% of the population of Sunderland (source: 2001 census) visit SunderlandEcho.com every day (source: ABCEs Jan-Jun 2009) - presuming those visitors are based in Sunderland. Anecdotally, the football news on SunderlandEcho.com is consistently the most visited topic and, coupling the increased Search Engine-ready nature of publishing and heightening profile of Sunder-land AFC, the 4% figure is likely to be in the sense that users could be landing on SunderlandEcho.com from anywhere in the world.

I thought it would be useful to make these calculations to try gauge some idea of the proportion of local people reading geographically-rel-evant online news. Qualitative research into the field can be found with the Ofcom report on page 06.

The approximate population of Sunderland SR2, going on figures from the 2001 census, is 30,000-35,000.Hendon - 10,377Ryhope - 13,852No figures for Ashbrooke, Grangetown, Thornhill, or Hillview.Approximate population of Sunderland SR2: 30,000-35,000

Sarah Booker, digital editor of six Johnston Press local newspaper web-sites, told me there was no analysis tool for measuring exact number of visitors that comment on articles compared with visitors who don’t comment on articles. From approximation though, Sarah said across any one of her six websites, fewer than 1% of visitors will place a comment, while the vast majority of the -1% that do comment will be loyal commenters (‘conversational commenters’), rather than once-in-a-while commenters. Similarly, Richard Kendall, web editor of John-ston Press title The Peterborough Evening Telegraph, said there was currently no way of quantifying such data, though he did reveal that (PET website) PeterboroughToday.co.uk now gets approaching 3,000 comments a month and, according to ABCE figures from Jan-Jun 2009, gets a monthly average of 162,149 Unique User/Browsers, equating to roughly 1.85% of visitors leaving comments.

I also spoke to James Rudd, website editor for a hyperlocal news site concentrated on approximately 10,000 households in Towcester, and part of a nationwide network of such sites, found at AboutMyArea.co.uk. In the week 30/11 to 06/12, James’ Towcester news site (two years, nine months old) recorded 10,267 visits and two comments. James pointed out that in order to comment on his site, the visitor must be a registered member of AMA and felt it necessary to add that

they ‘tend not to run anything very controversial’. He also added that he doesn’t want loads of comments as ‘it would become

like a forum and get hijacked and abused’. Across the

whole AMA network of ‘over 2000 community websites’, in the last six months there have been over 20,000 published articles, 10% of which were by users - rather than site editors - and around 1000 comments.

I took this as a useful indicator of the level of visitor contribution SR2 BLOG can expect, though there are a few variables to consider: the architecture of SR2 BLOG is considerably different to that of any of the aforementioned Johnston Press websites, something that is likely to subconciously feature in the mind of the visitor; the tone of SR2 BLOG is also considerably different to that of the Johnston Press websites - there is, for example, a call-to-action at the foot of every post in an attempt to get visitors to sign up as publishers; simi-larly, SR2 BLOG also has an ‘About’ page, shedding light into the people, principles and rationale behind the blog; it may also be fair to say, though I’m aware of no research to substantiate the claims, that visitors are more likely to interact with, and feel more ownership over, a website that is more geographically-relevant to them, fostering a greater sense of community.

Variables I took into account when approximating expected user growth for the forthcoming 12 months: anecdotal approximations on the level of interaction on seven individual local newspaper websites; SunderlandEcho.com ABCEs from Jan-Jun 2009; approximate percent-age of Sunderland population reading geographically-relevant news online; national standing of Sunderland and broadband-connected households; push on connecting more people to the Internet by Sun-derland City Council; relatively large number of electronic village halls/UK online centres in Sunderland SR2; Google forecasting a five year high in searches for ‘Sunderland news’ in 2010; statistics on popularity of the various social networking sites on which SR2 BLOG has a presence.

Three months: ~800 page impressions /month

Six months: ~2200 page impressions/month

Nine months: ~4000 page impressions/month

12 months: ~6000 page impressions/month

Affordable practicable tasks for facilitating growth and presence of SR2 BLOG include: - Christmas cards to all businesses and schools within Sunderland SR2; - Involvement at UK Online Centres and Electronic Village Halls, including offering training/help; - Involvement at Area Forums, including workshops on re quest; - Syndicate content to Spark FM and About My Area.

FACILITATING growth

05.

Key figures on Ward statistics and statistics for the various presences of SR2 BLOG online (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, for example) can be found in Appendix 1. Due to having a permanent presence on the listed websites, SR2 BLOG also takes traffic from the following sources: - www.NewsNow.co.uk - www.sunderlandeastareaforum.org.uk/ - http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wear/hi/

According to a 2008 survey of 1017 UK citizens by Livingstone & Markham, 23% of those questioned used the Internet to access news at least three times a week, they were described as ‘more men, younger and middle-class people’. Though this research is helpful, it is important to consider Sunderland-specific data on Sunderland-based citizens. A 2008 Ofcom report, for example, found Sunderland to be the city with the most broadband-connected homes in the UK (details below). Also, Sunderland was the overall winner of a government grant in 2007 that aimed to improve the lives of the ‘socially excluded’ by utilising various schemes, all aimed at making it easier for them to connect to the Inter-net. For such reasons, and considering the wide-ranging demographic of Sunderland SR2 residents, it would be invalid to assume those visit-ing SR2 BLOG are largely ‘men, younger and middle-class’ people.

JICREG data for the first half of 2009 found that 53% of Sunderland Echo readership was female, the largest majority were aged 35-44 (though the 55-64 was close behind), and 65% of readers fell into the C2DE (‘working class’) NRS social grade. [Full JICREG data in Appendix 1]

Age: 30-60Household income: £25,000-£40,000Socio-economic classification: C1C2D (‘lower middle class’, ‘skilled working class’ and ‘working class’) [Source: http://www.nrs.co.uk/lifestyle.html]

Likely someone who has never thought about going to community-en-gagement-type events - neighbourhood policing meetings and Resi-dents’ Association meetings, for example - but would likely be inter-ested in the content of such events, particularly crime reports. Likely to ask questions like ‘Who’s building what down my street?’, ‘Is burglary on the rise in Hendon?’, ‘Why did the church down our road close it’s doors all of a sudden?’ ‘What happened with all those sirens whizzing past my house last night?’ Such questions can be answered but require time, effort and a little journalistic knowlegde, SR2 BLOG seeks to answer them all.

A 2004 US study into participation in civil society and ‘networked com-munities’ (A. Kavanaugh et al. 2004) looked at personality traits in engaged citizens and found, ‘Extroversion, staying informed, and hav-ing membership in local organizations are significant in predicting com-munity activism.’ Although they did not explicitly define ‘community activism’, Kavanaugh et al defined ‘good citizenship’ as ‘participation in democratic processes such as keeping informed, discussing issues and voting.’

The typical SR2 BLOG contributor is likely to be one of the excep-tionally active people in their community - have attended a neighbour-

WHO? Typical visitor

Statistics from Ofcom’s 2008 annual communications report found Sunderland to have the highest percentage of broadband-connected homes in the UK. The report found that 66% of households in Sunder-land have a broadband connection, compared with the national average of 57%. Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmrnr08/uksummary.pdf

In 2007, Sunderland City Council launched the Digital Challenge pro-

gramme, a scheme with the aim of getting even more Wearsiders online. Similarly, all libraries offer internet access and there has been an increase in the number of electronic village halls and UK Online Centres, both initiatives aimed at opening up access to the in-ternet. There are two UK Online Centres and one electronic village hall in Sunderland SR2 alone. Dig

ital S

unde

rland

Typical contributor

hood policing meeting, is a member of a Residents’ Association, buys the local newspaper, has lived in the area for a long time*, is aware of trends and changes in his neighbourhood and likely feels a great sense or duty of community in contributing SR2 BLOG.

The typical SR2 BLOG contributor generally fits the estimated-demographic of the typical SR2 BLOG visitor in aspects of house-hold income and social classification. The typical contributor, however, is likely to be marginally older than the typical visitor. For the typical contributor, I limited the age estimation to 35-50 years, as opposed to 30-60 for the typical visitor. The rationale behind this is taken from the average age of members of voluntary community organisations (UK Online Centres and Residents’ Associations, to name just two) at-tendees being higher than the average age of the UK population - this is where I predict the core of quality SR2 BLOG contributions to come from.

In calculating the average age of typical SR2 BLOG contributor and visitor, I took into consid-eration Andrea Kavanaugh et al’s 2004 study into ‘Participating in civil sociey: the case of networked communities.’ Their study of 100 engaged citizens in a small town in the US, they found the average age of the person using ‘community-oriented networks’ was 46-47-years-old, with a standard deviation of 14-15 years. Also relevant is the length of time Kavanaugh et al found that the average user had been living in that specific community*: 18 years, with a standard deviation of 16-17years. The average number of of-fline groups to which these citizens belonged was two.

06.

dO PEOPLE REALLY CONSUME LOCAL NEWS ONLINE?Source: Ofcom Review of Local Media: Qualitative Findings (July 2009)

‘Participants in the research report a range of different behaviours and attitudes around using websites to consume local content’, recorded the Ofcom report.

Some participants explain that websites are a natural way to access all types on information including both local in-formation and news content. These participants say they prefer online consumption of local content as it enables con-venient access and more tailored and targeted local content consumption.[..]In contrast, other participants are simply less engaged with the internet in general, due to either a lack of interest or knowledge of how to use the internet These participants say if they do use the internet at all, it is restricted to searching for specific local information on a small range of local websites, for example using a local newspaper website to find out the details of a particular upcoming event, or a local council website to find out what days the recycling will be collected.Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/morr/reviewlocal.pdf [p. 14]

Of local news online, the report summised, ‘Local websites are felt to provide convenience, choice and control over local content consumption and act as a one-stop shop for most types of local content. They are the natural way to access local information for many participants who already use the internet regularly in their daily lives.’

Participants identified the following ‘key benefits’ of accessing local news online:

- Provides choice and control over local content consumption;

- A one-stop-shop for most types of local content;

- Readily accessible source, able to access information on de-mand

The report did, however, say that their respondents appeared to have ‘limited awareness’ of the range of local information online outside of:

- National newspaper or news media websites;

- Local newspaper websites;

- Event guides on local newspaper websites;

- Entertainment venue websites;

- Local council websites.

“You don’t have to sift through the paper or wait for the news, you can just find it straight away, you just type in what head-line it is [using websites.]” (Mansfield)“ ”Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/morr/reviewlocal.pdf

[p.14]

“Local Government website is handy for like Easter and bank holidays… to find out when they are actually coming to get the rubbish.” (Ruislip)“ ”

Changes in local media landscape

Participants in the research indicated they have seen a change in the local media landscape. Examples included:

- Some titles covering a wider area resulting in some loss of localised content;

- Some titles disappearing altogether;

- Perception of a loss in news content - more advertising, thinner papers;

- Prices of newspapers have risen despite some reduction in content depth;

Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/morr/reviewlocal.pdf [p. 17]

What are other UK hyperlocal news sites doing?

East Yorkshire-based Hedon Blog (hedonblog.wordpress.com) is one of the longest-running independent hyperlocal news sites in the UK. Launching in January 2009, Hedon Blog averaged 212 unique page views in the first month of going live; by July, Hedon Blog was receiving 1,784 unique page views a month, and by September that was up to 2,414.

Hedon Blog built it’s profile and readership mainly through offline activ-ity, namely targeted business card and flyer distribution.

Lichfield Blog also launched in January 2009. In October 2009, Li-chfield Blog received 40,000 page views in that one month alone. By November 2009, and still only 11 months old, Lichfield Blog was generating an income of over £70 in advertising revenue - surpassing even their own expectations.

Unlike Hedon Blog and many other hyperlocal news sites, Lichfield Blog is operated by four media professionals and has published con-tributions from 12 other voluntary members.

Trends in internet usage

[...]increased user involvement is having an upward effect on total surfing times. For example, according to Nielsen, the av-erage UK internet user spent three hours and 40 minutes on ‘member community sites’ in September 2008, up 42% on the figure of two hours and 35 minutes for a year previously.‘ ’Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/icmr08/converge.pdf

Towcester News (http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Northamptonshire/Towcester/NN12) is a hyperlocal news site for 10,000 in Towcester, Northamptonshire. Towcester News has been running for approach-ing three years and would appear to have built up a loyal userbase, apparently recording 10,267 visitors to the site for the week 30/11 - 06/12. Site editor, James Rudd, told me his news site had ‘effectively replace[d] the newspapers, who have little space and very little cover-age of the area.’

Success, for me and SR2 BLOG, would be to have hit the critical mass defined on page 2 within 12 months, to have achieved a steady growth in unique site visitors, to have demonstrated the site and its content management system at an EVH/Online Centre, to have built a valuable and useful resource that could easily be taken on by any one (or all) of Sunderland SR2’s community organisations.

production planTechnically being a community platform has, for SR2 BLOG, al-ways been a top priority. As a parallel to trends in internet usage - Of-com research outlined above - website developers, particularly those developing plugins for the open source WordPress, are likely to see such technicalities as a key focus, thus they should proliferate and improve.

The nature of WordPress - chosen Content Management System for SR2 BLOG - being open source means that there are constently extensions being built for greater publisher customisation. There are, for example, currently 7,572 WordPress plugins - 20 of which are in-stalled and active on SR2 BLOG.

Example of a simple user-entry fixture on the Northcliffe-owned hyperlocal news site for Berkhamsted, Berkhamsted People.

A user interface demonstration of SR2 BLOG can be found on page 08.

07.

””

07. 08.

USER interface

t

Interactive map with all published news mapped. Sunderland SR2 being the size that it is, the idea is that visitors will arrive at the site, recognise the mapped area and go to their neighbouring streets, picking up the most relevant news possible.

SR2 neighbourhoods presented as a click-able list with quantity of news items.*

t Traditional in-site search. All posts tagged by street presuming user is looking for geo-relevance.

tt Simple email subscription box.

*SR2 neighbourhoods presented as a clickable list with quantity of news items. This appears as one of the first naviga-tional tools because, unlike many online publishers, the SR2 BLOG homepage index is not broken down into categories. I see the SR2 BLOG homepage inter-face as much simpler and cleaner than the average online publisher. t Near real-time feed of the below updates:

- Twitter.com/SR2Blog - Delicious.com/joshhalliday/sunderland - YouTube.com/user/SR2Blog - Twitpic.com/photos/SR2Blog - Sunderland Echo news - BBC Wear news - Sunderland Eye Infirmary feedback - The Huntercombe Centre feedback - Ryhope General Hospital feedback

t JoshHalliday’s del.icio.us bookmarks tagged ‘Sunderland’ - usually council documents that are newsworthy but outside the patch of Sunderland SR2.

t A feed of Chris Mullin MPs, Member of Parlia-ment for Sunderland South, recent activity in Parliament, as recorded by Hansard.

t A feature-heavy footer that hopefully makes the site more easily navigatable and adds depth in exposing more content.

t

‘Write for SR2’ navigates user to WP registration page.

the effect of online networks on civic engagement

Longitudinal research on 100 US households within a ‘mature community network’ found that ‘A community computer net-work* facilitates civic participation by providing pervasive local resources online and by connecting people to local communication and discussion channels, public and non-profit organization lead-ers and members, and many other civic resources’ [A. Kavanaugh et al. (2004) Participating in civil society: the case of networked communities. p.1]

Kavanaugh et al on the effect of community-based websites on civic information distribution:

Further, reinforcing the SR2 BLOG growth-facilitating plan to in-volve workshops at local Electronic Village Halls and Online Centres, Ka-vanaugh recommended, ‘Community networks should also promote and

support the use by local groups of innovative tools for non-experts, such as easy collaborative web-based tools for information production and collaboration’ (Kavanaugh, 2004).

A community computer network facilitates civic par-ticipation by providing pervasive local resources on-line and by connecting people to local communication and discussion channels, public and non-profit orga-nization leaders and members, and many other civic resources.‘ ’

*‘community network’: ‘Community-oriented networks seek to facilitate information dissemination, discussion, and joint activity pertaining to mu-nicipal government, public schools, voluntary associations, local events, community issues, regional economic development and social services.’

Although political bodies have been required to make most in-formation accessible to the public, it has been difficult for the average citizen to find and obtain background information and documentation on important issues beyond what is reported in the mass media. Local issues may be covered only in a local newspaper, radio or television broadcast, but the detailed in-formation behind the stories is difficult to track down. It is very time consuming to investigate where background information is, to identify and make contact with appropriate officials or staff, or traipse through government buildings, town halls, or public libraries seeking records. This has been the specialized work of media reporters and determined activists. It is gener-ally accepted that Internet tools, such as web browsers and email, have lowered costs of locating, acquiring and exchang-ing such information. (Kavanaugh, 2004)

online centres in sunderland

The mission statement of SR2 BLOG is to ‘bring together like-minded engaged citizens whose concerns and interests can be effectively expressed on a collaborative website. The aim is for a social news site; users [...] contributing to a greater knowledge of Sunderland SR2, it’s residents, events businesses and prospects.’ I believe everything in this concept document points to the likely success of SR2 BLOG as a

community resource.

09.

SR2 BLOGa community-run news site for sunderland sr2

hyour news

APPENDIX 1

Offline:

HendonSource: 2001 Census (http://bit.ly/5k0NkV)

Population: 10,377Full-time workers aged 16-74: 33% (of total population)Part-time workers aged 16-74: 11%Self-employed workers aged 16-74: 5%Retired workers aged 16-74: 13%Students aged 16-74: 5%Economically inactive (looking after home/family, permanently sick/disabled, other): 21%Large employers and higher managerial occupations: 1.6%Higher professional occupations: 2.54%Lower managerial and professional occupations: 13.42%Aged 16-74 with no qualifications: 36%

Online:Source: Hitwise (data taken from week ending 28/11/2009) http://bit.ly/3qGO8b

YouTube.com/user/SR2BlogYouTube was the sixth most-visited website in the UK – ahead of UK msn, the BBC homepage, Amazon and Wikipedia, amongst others.Out of the social networking websites, YouTube was the second most-visited in the UK with 16.16%, only behind Facebook and far exceeding third-placed Bebo.

Facebook Page: SR2 BlogFacebook was the second most-visited website in the UK in the same time period. Out of the social networking websites, Facebook had far and away the lion share of all UK visits with 51.05%

Twitter.com/SR2BlogTwitter was not amongst the most-visited websites in the UK in the given time period. Out of the social networking websites, Twitter ranked fourth, with 1.9% of all UK visits.

SunderlandSource: 2001 Census (http://bit.ly/5k0NkV)

Population: 280,807Full-time workers aged 16-74: 37% (of total population)Part-time workers aged 16-74: 11%Self-employed workers aged 16-74: 4%Retired workers aged 16-74: 14%Students aged 16-74: 4%Economically inactive (looking after home/family, permanently sick/disabled, other): 19%Large employers and higher managerial occupations: 1.85%Higher professional occupations: 2.28%Lower managerial and professional occupations: 13.47%Aged 16-74 with no qualifications: 36%

Gazettelive.co.ukSource: ABCE report January-June 2009: http://bit.ly/8zvU0U

Daily average of Unique Users/Browsers: 15,419Monthly average of Unique Users/Browsers: 264, 648

No data available for individual site addresses, though we can see a list of most visited on monthly averages.

The Gazette’s hyperlocal site for Redcar (http://ts10.gazettelive.co.uk) remained the third most-visited GazetteLive.co.uk address in every month from January to June.

SunderlandEcho.comSource: ABCE report January-June 2009: http://bit.ly/6yWtIe

Daily average of Unique Users/Browsers: 11,332Monthly average of Unique Users/Browsers: 182, 106

Statistics compiled by JICREG, taken from Jan-uary - June 2009, shows the following about the readership of Sunderland Echo.

Female readers: 50,453Male readers: 44,761

Age 15-24: 14343

Age 25-34: 13,494Age 35-44: 15,384Age 45-54: 12,557Age 55-64: 15,026Age 65-74: 13,828Age 75+: 10,582

ABC1: 33,083

C2DE: 62,130AB: 11,486C1: 21,598C2: 20,812DE: 41,318

Source: http://bit.ly/5mh6L9

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