In Dallas, live blogging leads to civic engagement

Internet journalism can help bring people and government closer together. How? Live blogging from public meetings.

Take this recent example from the Dallas Morning News. The Dallas school district is going through a budgeting crisis — they’re $84 million short for the upcoming fiscal year. At a meeting on Oct. 2, school trustees met to figure out how to proceed.

In attendance was Tawnell Hobbs, an education reporter for the Morning News. Hobbs live blogged the meeting, posting minute-by-minute updates for a large audience of concerned readers.

But this was no one-sided broadcast. Instead, readers could participate in the conversation. As Hobbs blogged, citizens commented, expressing their views not only on the budgeting crisis, but also on teachers, schools, the school board and other education issues.

The result was an active, engaging conversation that pleased and astonished the journalist leading it. In an interview with Beat Blogger Patrick Thornton, Hobbs said that increased interaction with readers has taught her how people in the community really think about the issues she covers:

Before the DISD beat blog, Hobbs thought she knew what people were feeling in the community. At meetings, she can interview people and ask them what they think, but now she has a lot more contact with people in the district. She has a lot more interaction with people in the district and can better gauge how they feel about issues.

“You don’t realize you’re not getting it until you have a blog like this,” she said. “Before, I thought I was kind of getting it. Until we put this blog up, I didn’t realize we weren’t getting as much as I thought we were.”

If reporters live blogged from more meetings, maybe more people would take the time to find out what politicians are up to. Maybe more politicians would find out what their constituents want from them.

Participation and conversation are essential to a successful democracy. Live blogging could be the tool to instill more back-and-forth into local, state and national politics.