Introducing ‘The Source’

The news, these days, is a conversation.There have always been plenty of conversations _about_ the news – but the 21st century has narrowed the gap between those of us who report and present the news, and those of us who consume it. The line between the two is blurrier than it has ever been.Take, for example, the comments after stories here at LJWorld.com. The anonymous posts attract a fair amount of criticism, especially from city leaders who often bear the brunt of our commenters’ ire. It’s not always fun to be on the receiving end.But those comments can also help drive our coverage. Just to use one example: When police searched KU campus for a reported gunman early this summer, online comments from people isolated in campus buildings gave Journal-World and 6News journalists their first inkling of complaints the university hadn’t alerted the community to the possible danger – and became a major theme of the story that followed.And, of course, we also have online chats where newsmakers take questions from the public in ways that were unheard of a little more than a decade ago. That’s why we’ve created The Source.It’s a blog where reporters and editors from 6News and the Journal-World will seek your help – your knowledge – as we report stories that affect the community. Sometimes we’ll ask you who we should be talking to as we report stories.Sometimes, we’ll ask you where we should be looking for more information.And sometimes, we’ll ask you if there are stories that we just haven’t gotten to yet.Doing community journalism mean we in the news business need to listen to our community.We’re listening.