Nashens is a blog focused around community journalism for Nashville. So many Nashvillians have the ability to share information — photos, videos, tweets, blog posts — at their fingertips, wherever they are. Just a tap on the smartphone to record a video of what they see around town, another few taps to share it to Facebook: Nashville is full of citizen reporters.
Before I moved to Nashville, I lived near Boston, reading Universal Hub daily for its entertaining but informative community journalism. Back in 2005, when the site started, blogs and digital cameras were the new-fangled things of the digital era. It was the new Web 2.0. Adam Gaffin, the site’s publisher, wrote a blog post back then that explained his brand of community journalism for his city:
The idea that all of us with our blogs and digital cameras and Flickr accounts and copies of Word 97 could create a new information resource, one that could tell the stories that will never appear in the Globe or Herald – or provide a different perspective than you’d see on Channel 7.
After all, who hasn’t seen a zillion police cars with their lights going and wondered what’s going on? Who didn’t rush outside over the weekend to describe and photograph the blizzard?
The technology has modernized since then. But the idea is still the same. He continued:
I’m just one person and what I’m interested in might not be the same as what you care about. What if we had a place where you could file interesting tidbits and have a say in what goes on the front page? And what if it were all organized by topic and neighborhood – so folks could quickly get to the news they care about?
Nashens is that place for Nashville. Anybody can create an account and file a report right here on nashens.com. They can tweet @nashensnews or grab the attention of our Facebook page. Those with a photo to share can also use Instagram or post it in the Nashens pool on Flickr.
P.S. This is our 100th post!