Story Review

I spent my early childhood in a communist state — Bulgaria. As a teenager, I took part in protest rallies against the “reformed” Socialist party’s government which had brought the country’s economy to the brink of collapse. Not even the worst financial crisis since the 1930s can shatter my belief in capitalism and free markets.

I have a friend who has spent his early childhood in Ireland and his teenage years in Sweden. No amount of reports about atrocities under dictatorship can shatter his belief in communism.

Our respective societies have taught us their doctrines. We have experienced the practice of these doctrines first hand and have been disappointed. As a result, we have turned to the opposing theory. We believe in it so firmly that real-life examples of it not working do not deter us. What’s more, we do not need real-life examples of it working to bolster our faith. Until something changes dramatically, I suppose.

What’s that to do with journalism? Here’s what: Journalists have been taught a theory about what their job is and what role they play in society. This theory is no longer valid. Many are disappointed with legacy media and have embraced ideas such as conversational journalism, link journalism, the economics of free, etc. But what if that’s all smoke and mirrors? Where are the real-life success stories that prove these new theories right?

You know what, strike that. It doesn’t matter if there’s proof or not. As the example of me and my friend suggests, people will believe what they want to. So we’ll just find ways to explain the cracks in our theories and move on, until something changes dramatically.

Should that be a worry? Or should we have a sigh of relief and settle for what, due to the nature of being human, is probably going to be the immediate future of journalism?

Can a story about parking tickets be exciting? Hardly. Yet, what do you do when you are a newspaper, you know that “New York City agencies issued 9,955,441 parking tickets from July 2007 to June 2008” and you have the location for 87% of those? Not using that amount of data seems like such a waste!

Enter the New York Times’ Matthew Bloch and Amanda Cox and their interactive map of parking tickets in New York City.

Google maps mash-ups are starting to become ubiquitous, so something on that basis cannot really be seen as original in November 2008. But not many newspapers have thought about using the technology for making parking tickets into a story.

The presentation of this story is minimalist but caters to all your core needs. Basically, what you will want from an interactive map of parking tickets is to see where the most tickets are and what the situation where you live or work is. Helpful enough, hot spots are marked on the map in red (with the hottest ones across the five boroughs listed in the sidebar), and there is a search field where you can search for an address. After spending some time exploring, this reviewer also wanted to check which blocks had the fewest tickets, but could not. However, most users are unlikely to be after that level of detail.

On a slow news day, this is a great way to bring some community information to the community. (Mind you, we are not sure if November 26 was a slow news day.)

The thing you’ve got to love about this map is that it allows any user to create their own story by interacting with it. Those may not be the most thrilling stories where the broader audience is concerned, but to the individual user they matter. If you wonder why, just go to Google Maps and find your own house. You see?

VERDICT

Originality: 4 (out of 5)

It seems like one of those ideas anyone could have had. Only no one else had them.

Presentation: 4 (out of 5)

Simple and straightforward, caters to the audience’s most basic needs.

Journalistic value: 3 (out of 5)

Everyone can create their very personal story.

Overall: 3.8 (out of 5)

Impressive.

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Thanks to Alison Gow’s Headlines and Deadlines blog for linking to the interactive graphic.

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If journalism is a conversation then how do the participants in it talk to each other? Is it enough for media companies to talk to their audiences? Why not allow the members of the public talk to each other, within the framework of the same conversation?

Google Friend Connect looks like a very promising tool to help in this respect. So let’s test in on our blogs and see if it would work on our news sites. Join this blog (find the widget in the sidebar on the homepage) or send me invites to join your sites. Thanks.

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