Neighborhood stories have never had their fair share of coverage in the mainstream press. Local papers did their best to report local stories-both news and features-but much was missed. Beyond the sensational stories, little was written about everyday folk who provided the energy, chaos, rhythm and texture of community life.

A major reason for this oversight is that coverage seldom came from reporters with intimate knowledge of these communities. The situation has changed dramatically today thanks to the internet and to sites like patch.com. The fact that there are now many sites where professional and citizen journalists can post ideas and share observations has had a major effect on local coverage – often helping obscure, little posts grow into full-fledged stories. Much is gained when young journalists engage in dialogue about their posts, honing and expanding their original ideas. And much is gained when citizens weigh in as stories evolve, leaving comments and corrections.

Writing New York: Posts from the Boroughs and Beyond is an experiment in achieving this type of social and community media. Begun in 2008/9 by students in JRN 3050/Journalistic Writing, and incorporated into subsequent classes by Professors Bridgett Davis, Vera Haller and Roslyn Bernstein, this blog site currently serves as a space where Feature Writing student journalists can record impressions and observations on the media and share information as they report stories on neighborhoods of their choice.

The site serves multiple purposes: as a resource for Baruch students studying journalism, as a vehicle for conversation between classmates and the larger blogosphere community, and as a hotbed of fresh ideas that will naturally lead to original neighborhood stories.

This site acknowledges that reporters, bloggers, and readers all contribute to the variety and texture of the media landscape and it incorporates multimedia –slideshows, podcasts, and video–to enrich the features and deepen the story-telling.