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In which we launch a bucket brigade

Posted on September 13, 2007September 13, 2007 by Staff


Veteran editor-publisher Ken Ripley of the Spring Hope Enterprise (seated, center) is surrounded by the UNC Community Journalism class “Bucket Brigade,” left to right: Laura Davenport, Gregg Found, Kate Newnam, Sam Giffin, Kendal Walters, Marianna King, Elyse Archer, Emily Burns, Cody Braun and Cameron Weaver. Instructor Jock Lauterer is at lower front right. Photo by Vickie Ripley

The construction of a new town hall; plans for the annual autumn Pumpkin Festival; the dedication of a rebuilt country church following a devastating fire; the semi-annual Ruritan Club chicken barbecue — hardly the breathless “this-just-in” breaking news of CNN — but to the folks of the Spring Hope Enterprise, this is the stuff of next week’s front page.

My students and I know this firsthand because we are the reporters and photographers covering these seemingly ordinary events in the little town of Spring Hope (1,281) one hour east of here.
How did a band of UNC-Chapel Hill journalism students find themselves last week in what some would call “the middle of nowhere”?

Therein lies the tale.

The backstory
Remember the horrendous tornado of early May that leveled the little down of Greensburg, Kansas? I was sitting in front of my TV when I heard the editor of the Kiowa County Signal, standing there amid the rubble of his town, say, practically in tears: “I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, but I’m gonna put a paper out next week.”

I jumped right out of my chair and hollered: I need to be out there helping that guy! While I was figuring out how I could change all my summer plans and catch a flight to Kansas, I realized: Hold on, Kansas is not my turf.

So I buzzed my professor pals at Kansas State and the University of Kansas to see if they were springing into action. No, they hadn’t done anything yet, but I was assured they’d get right on it.

Then it occurred to me: Hey Lauterer, what would you do if a North Carolina community paper took a direct hit from a hurricane? How prepared are you? Do you have a Rapid Response Journalism Team primed and ready?

“Wull … no, not exactly.…” I had to admit. And then the wheels starting turning. “But maybe if I get off my duff and start planning….”

Why it matters
As the author of the book Community Journalism: Relentlessly Local, I’ve learned how vital community newspapers are to the maintenance of local civic life. I’ve seen it all too often: Towns without enlightened community papers are simply handicapped. Not surprisingly, strong papers are usually found in strong communities.

I’ve also witnessed how community papers serve their communities, particularly in times of crisis — most recently, the hundreds of Gulf Coast small local papers that not only survived Katrina/Rita, but kept publishing, saying to their towns and the world in general, “We’re Still Here!”

This heroism of everyday community journalism goes largely unheralded. Only when a little paper wins a Pulitzer does the world sit up and take notice. And that’s fine; community papers aren’t in the PR business. They’re in the business of serving their communities, pure and simple.

Coming full circle
So shouldn’t it be the business also of the local colleges and universities to serve their communities? Doggone right. And the notion ain’t exactly mine. UNC’s legendary WW I-era president Edward Kidder Graham preached that the campus of this great university should be “coterminous” with the borders of the state.

That is: the whole state is our campus!

Within a week of the Greensburg, Kansas tornado I had fleshed out a plan for how a community journalism “bucket brigade” could come to the aid of a Down East community newspaper in crisis. But then my thinking took another turn.

Why sit around and wait for disaster to strike? Find a community paper right now that needs help.

And that led us to Spring Hope, where I knew my longtime pal and veteran editor and publisher Ken Ripley was going in this month for a double hip replacement, a process that will require two separate operations and a lengthy recovery at home. Knowing the unstoppable Mr. Ripley, he refuses to miss an issue, putting out his paper via laptop from his bedside.

So how cool would it be for a UNC journalism class to form a “bucket brigade” over to Spring Hope to help provide content for Ripley’s beleaguered Enterprise?

As it turns out, it’s not just cool; it’s fun and productive. And if our first week is any indicator, the Bucket Brigade is also an invaluable learning experience.

As I watched my student reporters fanning out across town to do their stories and take their pictures, I became convinced they were learning far more than just lessons in journalism. Perhaps some of them were already realizing that “the middle of nowhere” is the center of someone else’s universe.

Jock Lauterer teaches at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication where he may be reached at 962-6421 or jock@email.unc.edu.

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