So much of beat blogging is about online organizing - something that isn’t taught in journalism schools, but skills that I think all journalists posses. Bethany Or is working on Mashup, a new radio show about what happens when cultures crash together - and she is beat blogging to get sources and work on stories. Interested in brainstorming ideas with her? Email her. Or better yet, add her as a friend on Facebook where she is also doing organizing.

She is beat blogging using both tools - email and Facebook. The Facebook site got 60 members in 2 days. Not bad! And tons
of people wrote back to the first mass email she sent - they then became
part of the "Inner Circle." She has also been talking with people about it
in person and by phone.

In her latest email to her network Bethany writes

Thanks for agreeing to part of what I affectionately call the
"Mashup Inner Circle." I’m hoping to use your ears and brains to test
out ideas for the show this summer.

 

Things have evolved nicely over the past week and a half and we’re
now at the stage of DOING - up until now, it has been one massive
brainstorm.

 

Here are some of the ideas we’ve been discussing. Do these
interest you? Make sense? Have any ideas of people we need to talk to or angles we need to consider?

• hip hop has evolved beyond just
  African-American culture and is present on every continent of the
  world. Lots of people in Canada, whether they be young immigrants, or children of immigrants, end up adopting hip hop as their own. How did this happen? Why?
• Young people who have more conservative immigrant parents might
  need to hide their relationship from their family. This gets
  complicated when they start living together …… you may end up in all sorts of elaborate schemes to hide it. Anyone in this situation? Been in it? Know someone who is?
• anyone know someone who’s immigrated to Canada in the last year or so?

I’ll leave you with these to chew on …. drop a line, or
call. I’ll try and compile it all so you can see what others thought
about these ideas. Plus, if you have Facebook, drop into my group, Let’s make radio with Bethany (you’ll see a photo of me holding a radio).

 

Sending my thanks, and a smile,

Bethany