Be Urbandale's Eyes and Ears

As the editor of Urbandale Patch, I hear about much more Urbandale news than I have time to write in any given day. And that doesn’t even include the interesting things that I don’t hear about!

So I'm very excited about Patch's newest platform for citizen journalism. Today we’re introducing two new pages on Urbandale Patch: “Eyes & Ears”  and “OffTheBus 2012: Iowa.” The links are in the 'News' tab along the top of the screen. These pages are designed to showcase citizen journalists. (That’s you!)

Citizen journalism, if you’re not familiar with the term, is the simple idea that people who care about issues can help cover them.  Photos you take, announcements you post or links you share is journalism, because it helps us learn more about what’s going on in Urbandale.

How To Do It

We’re using Tumblr, a microblogging platform, which is probably the easiest, most fun way to publish content today. You could go there now, submit a photo your neighbors might like to see, and be done in 60 seconds. 

What to Submit to “Eyes & Ears”

Anything you’d like to see on Patch: A picture from a football game, video of a parade, a quote you heard at a town hall meeting, or a link to anything locals ought to be talking about. There are buttons at the top of the Urbandale Eyes & Ears page to make it simple.

OffTheBus 2012: Iowa

OffTheBus 2012 is explicitly devoted to political news pulled from citizen journalists across the state, and it’s part of a collaboration with the Huffington Post. (Remember when then-candidate Barack Obama got in trouble for saying Pennsylvanians “cling to guns and religion”? That quote was reported by a citizen journalist for OffTheBus!) This is the page for the fliers from visiting candidates, videos of their speeches, pictures of the media hordes moving in a herd around our town. If you hear a candidate say something newsworthy, you can submit it and make national news yourself!

Eyes & Ears vs. Blogging

Eyes & Ears is great place to share information, photos, and videos. Blogging on Patch as a way to share longer works of opinion and analysis. And if you want to blog: email me!)

Submitting from a smartphone

There's an app for that. Download the Tumblr app or just visit our pages in your mobile browser.