Making sense of the news as a community

Now in our third week of the NewsTrust Baltimore experiment, we have begun to build a great community of reviewers. I'd like to highlight some of the members and reviews that are making us all look at the news with a new perspective.

The Towson Patch article "Speed Camera Support: Grassroots or Astroturf?"  was a well-reviewed article. Towson University professor Stacy Spaulding comments, "Bryan Sears does an excellent job reporting the connections between a neighborhood advocacy group and a public affairs strategy firm whose client will receive more county speed camera contracts." She also adds, "The article casts a frightening shadow behind these increasingly common Facebook campaigns."

The Baltimore Sun article "Lawmakers look to outlaw reading texts while driving" has this thoughtful review by Towson University student Asia S. Hinton: "Not only was the story interesting, but it brought about many facts that were unknown to me. For example, I did not know that it was only illegal to text while driving, not including reading a text." Asia suggests the reporter could have included "a link to the State Highway Administration, that way readers could look on the website themselves to view more rules and regulations of texting and talking while driving."

And on the opinion side, Bob Herrschaft , a regular contributor to our national site, reviews "The Inner Harbor: What the World Can Learn From Baltimore,"  reading it as "a nice perspective of what has been done in the past to regenerate Baltimore's Inner Harbor and the influence it has had on other cities attempts to revitalize a decaying waterfront."

Lastly, our live news comparison on the Marc Steiner Show Wednesday night gave us a chance to look critically at three stories, all about the same incident - the City Neighbors Middle School protest of the potential demolition of Read's Drug Store. 

Gigi Wirtz, communications director at the Baltimore Community Foundation, reviewed the article "Baltimore students march to save Read’s, site of historic desegregation sit-in"  noting that "the first photos you see are not in front of the building in question, but a much more beautiful, well-kept structure," which could impact how the story is read. 

Malaika Aminata Clements, a Morgan State journalism major who joined us on the air, felt that the same article "used colorful language and gets the reader interested in what is being said" but also that the story could be improved by "showing us why this event is so important, not only locally, but globally."

You can read and review all three stories that we compared from the Baltimore Sun, WJZ-TV, and the Baltimore Brew, and share your own perspective! 

Thank you for being part of our local news experiment -- we are truly community-driven. I will continue to highlight our the reviews and members who help us all become more critical news consumers -- maybe your review will be next!