REBECCA E SPITZER

I’d like to illustrate what I think it lacking in the news media with a Wellesley conundrum.

I just sat in on a round-table about Social Networking at our annual Tanner Conference, and I left it still thinking about a number of issues, including questions about where people source their news from and whether they trust their sources. I passed by some copies of the Wellesley News and realized that I never read the Wellesley News, even though I’m quite interested in journalism. I never read the News because I assume that I’ll hear about anything newsworthy on Community, our online forum for general discussion, debate, and advertising spam. I’d like to talk about this issue more with people on campus, perhaps people that are in my major or that are interested in the same questions.

My first thought was to post my epiphany on Twitter, as I often do these days. But I don’t think I could fit the thought into 140 characters, and I don’t think it would elicit any discussion. I could, alternatively, post about it here (which I am doing right now, technically…) but that won’t prompt any discussion, either.

I could bring the topic up in a classroom, but I’m not studying anything in class right now that relates directly to this question of news access on campus.

I could go all old-school and just talk to someone face to face, but even that is improbable.

The one thing I could do that would probably elicit the response I’m looking for is post to Community itself to talk about Community, which is a little redundant, but it’s a conclusion I find interesting. I suppose I’m still not quite sure where I’m going with this, but at least I know this – we need a better forum for conversation about issues, and the forum needs to connect us with the audience we’re looking for. I want to talk to a specific subset of people about specific issues, but I don’t want to just send them an email, for that would be too direct. What other options are there?