The Rapidian

Rapids Community Media Center and GR Community Foundation with the support of a grant from the John S. and Jame L. Knight Foundation. While The Rapidian exists simply as a website right now, the near-future goal is to establish physical neighborhood hubs - meeting places with computers, video equipment, and other resources for use by citizen reporters.

Although strong and interesting citizen journalism efforts exist already around the country (and the world), part of what sets The Rapidian apart is its dual emphasis on open access and journalistic integrity. Anyone can sign up to be a reporter, but their first three stories are vetted by an editor against a value statement and journalistic policies, the overarching values of which are civility, accountability, originality, and accuracy. Once new reporters demonstrate an understanding of and adherence to these policies in their work, they graduate to official reporter status where they can add content to the site immediately. The Rapidian strives to balance its commitment to freedom of speech with the accountability and trust necessary to build a journalistic presence the community can rely on.

Still, users of the site are also offered a “flagging” option, where they can report material in violation of The Rapidian guidelines to moderators (options for unacceptable content include hate speech, defamation, and plagiarism). So the entire reporting process centers on a commitment to journalistic ethics, with a built-in give and take between reporters and readers to ensure such ethics are upheld - and that a conversation can take place about what those ethics mean, especially within our local community.

And, of course, the value of civility applies equally to commenters on the site, an area where mainstream news outlets have often faltered by allowing anonymous, and often vicious and insensitive comments, on news stories. On The Rapidian, everyone must use their real name, ensuring that all participants are prepared to take responsibility for their statements as they would in the town square.

Lastly, part of The Rapidian’s uniqueness rests on its collaborative status with other major area news outlets. We don’t see ourselves as in competition with or an alternative to our city’s established newspapers our TV news shows. Instead, we are one of the many news options, and all stories are published under Creative Commons licenses that allow sharing with other outlets.

I created the short promo above for our launch, and now I must give props to the Rapidian peeps who have made all this happen: Laurie Cirivello (executive director, Community Media Center), Roberta King (V.P. of PR and Marketing, Grand Rapids Community Foundation), Denise Cheng (citizen journalism coordinator, CMC), George Wietor (new media planner, CMC), Ron Woldyk (web developer, CMC), Gretchen Vinnedge (education director, CMC); and my fellow intrepid volunteers on the steering committee: Drew Storey, Tera Wozniak, Rickey Ainsworth, Kolene Allen.

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