I started hearing about power outages this evening near Sunriver and La Pine.
I asked about it on our Facebook page. In minutes, dozens of reports – well before I got hold of the Midstate Electric Co-op representative to start providing reports.
I used the Facebook friends’ info to help tell the story – the neighborhoods and roads in the affected area.
Soon, I had official info to weave in – not just official info, but also from the most sought after thing in the news world – real people.
Put the two together, and you have magic. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen a lot. It’s grown every year in the past several.
The questions are simple and obvious, in this case: No political messes, no angles or subtext.
How big is this outage? How long will it last? Phone lines can melt down, and … people want to know.
People hear sirens, see a bunch of police cars, and they ask … me, us. Often on Facebook, where they hang out. I appreciate their trust in us, and try to answer when I can.
We’ve found out about plenty of things on Facebook from people who wouldn’t e-mail or pick up a phone, but feel comfortable weighing in there. (Do I wish they’d comment on our Website instead? Yes, for a host of reasons, and I’m trying to spark conversations. But people are where they are, and like what they like. We can only affect that so much.) Just about every day, a reporter suggest we seek out some folks willing to help in a story — and sometimes, like last week, they end up on the air.
It’s a wonderful symbiosis — they help us, we help them. Information is shared, news is gathered, from new sources and not-so-new.
When it comes to the Future of News and Is Everyone a Journalist Now? Great themes for hand-wringing and crystal ball-gazing — pontificators can pontificate, consultants can consult, advisers can advise.
Meanwhile, I… we are … just doing it. Day by day, post by post.
And it’s pretty darn cool. A 2-way social media avenue that benefits both parties.
No money changes hands, and that worries a lot of people who justifiably need to find how to pay for things of value that we provide.
It’s like my old T-shirt slogan idea: Information wants to be free! (But I want a raise). Cognitive dissonance that doesn’t help directly pay the bills — but return on reputation IS worth something, right?
Those questions need answers, and one way or another, they will come.
But in the meantime, in between time… ain’t we got fun?
As always, to our Facebook friends: Thanks for the help, folks.
Leave it to Barney 
As a former Central Oregonian and still an avid fisherman it saddens me to see that the owners of the water that flows thru the upper Deschutes canal…er I mean river, still feel it is their right to hold back the water to a trickle jeopordizing not only the health of the trout in the upper river but the health of the river itself……Mirror Pond is a prime example of silt clogging caused by this very practice…….,,,