
{"id":880,"date":"2007-09-13T06:02:35","date_gmt":"2007-09-13T14:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/09\/13\/in-which-we-launch-a-bucket-brigade\/"},"modified":"2007-09-13T06:59:31","modified_gmt":"2007-09-13T14:59:31","slug":"in-which-we-launch-a-bucket-brigade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/09\/13\/in-which-we-launch-a-bucket-brigade\/","title":{"rendered":"In which we launch a bucket brigade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/ripley-and-cjers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/ripley-and-cjers.jpg\" height=\"185\" width=\"257\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nVeteran editor-publisher Ken Ripley of the Spring Hope Enterprise (seated, center) is surrounded by the UNC Community Journalism class \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bucket Brigade,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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 <\/em><\/p>\n<p>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d hardly the breathless \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this-just-in\u00e2\u20ac\u009d breaking news of CNN \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but to the folks of the Spring Hope Enterprise, this is the stuff of next week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s front page.<\/p>\n<p>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.<br \/>\nHow did a band of UNC-Chapel Hill journalism students find themselves last week in what some would call \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the middle of nowhere\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n<p>Therein lies the tale.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>The backstory<\/strong><br \/>\nRemember 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: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna do it, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna put a paper out next week.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done anything yet, but I was assured they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get right on it.<\/p>\n<p>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?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wull &#8230; no, not exactly.\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I had to admit. And then the wheels starting turning.  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But maybe if I get off my duff and start planning\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters<\/strong><br \/>\nAs the author of the book Community Journalism: Relentlessly Local, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned how vital community newspapers are to the maintenance of local civic life. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen it all too often: Towns without enlightened community papers are simply handicapped. Not surprisingly, strong papers are usually found in strong communities.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also witnessed how community papers serve their communities, particularly in times of crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 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, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re Still Here!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine; community papers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in the PR business. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the business of serving their communities, pure and simple.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coming full circle<\/strong><br \/>\nSo shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it be the business also of the local colleges and universities to serve their communities? Doggone right. And the notion ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly mine. UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legendary WW I-era president Edward Kidder Graham preached that the campus of this great university should be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153coterminous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the borders of the state.<\/p>\n<p>That is: the whole state is our campus!<\/p>\n<p>Within a week of the Greensburg, Kansas tornado I had fleshed out a plan for how a community journalism \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bucket brigade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d could come to the aid of a Down East community newspaper in crisis. But then my thinking took another turn.<\/p>\n<p>Why sit around and wait for disaster to strike? Find a community paper right now that needs help.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>So how cool would it be for a UNC journalism class to form a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bucket brigade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d over to Spring Hope to help provide content for Ripley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beleaguered Enterprise?<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just cool; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fun and productive. And if our first week is any indicator, the Bucket Brigade is also an invaluable learning experience.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the middle of nowhere\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the center of someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s universe.<\/p>\n<p><em>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.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran editor-publisher Ken Ripley of the Spring Hope Enterprise (seated, center) is surrounded by the UNC Community Journalism class \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bucket Brigade,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}