Editor’s note: This post will be the last on MyMissourian.com. Its content will be moving to “From Readers,” a new section at ColumbiaMissourian.com.

Shared by Clyde Bentley

Clyde Bentley is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He created my MyMissourian.com in 2004.

For a parent, the joy of a child’s birth is matched only by the pride of watching the adult stride into the world. That’s why I will shed only tears of joy when our internationally known citizen journalism site “graduates” this week.

MyMissourian.com is a unique part of the journalism world to which the Missouri School of Journalism gave birth, but that the people of Columbia reared. But after seven years, it is time to close the site. Instead, the stories, recipes, photos and memories that you have shared with your neighbors will take their place with the rest of the news in the Columbia Missourian under the heading “From Readers.”

When MyMissourian launched in 2004, the notion of letting non-journalists publish in a product operated by a traditional media organization was radical, even heretical. Journalists are trained to collect information thoroughly, sift fact from fiction and craft prose free from typographical or factual errors. The pros in the newsroom assumed that lay people could never match that quality.
That and other assumptions by “Big J” journalism went out the window with the advent of blogging. Like it or not, everyone now had the access to the digital presses.

The stage for change, however, was set by a Korean visionary named Oh Yeon-Ho. Oh successfully combined the traits of traditional journalism and blogging with OhMyNews.com. He recruited thousands of volunteer reporters to gather and write the news under the tutelage of a team of professional editors. The concept hopped the Pacific to the Bakersfield Californian, which opened its columns to its readers via its Northwest Voice edition.

When this new “every citizen is a reporter” concept roared through the professional journals in 2004, Missouri School of Journalism Dean, Dean Mills, asked me to organize a class to explore it. As unpopular as this growing phenomenon was with many in the journalism profession, the Journalism School takes seriously our duty to prod, research and test any development that might impact the mass media and its consumers.

That summer, my colleague Curt Wohleber and I assembled a team of graduate students to help come to grips with the challenge. Most were veteran journalists here to earn master’s degree and all were very opinionated about what opening the presses to public meant to journalism. Their top questions were:

• Won’t “amateur” stories be full of misspellings and poor grammar?

• What if they use foul language?

• What’s to keep them from talking about their businesses?

• What happens if the submitted story is simply stupid?

We decided that spell-checking programs on the writers’ PCs would handle most of the first problem. Even a quick read by an editor would catch the profanity or content generally considered inappropriate in a community newspaper.

Commercialism challenged us, as journalists are ingrained with the concept of a “wall” between advertising and news. But we decided that as long as someone wasn’t actually pitching a sale, business was a vital part of community life. We would just live with it.
And the stupid stuff? Journalists have little to stand on when they attempt to judge what is silly and what is not. If the story was too far-fetched, we could posted under an “oddities” heading and let readers make the call.

So after weeks battling over fine points, we decided the citizens of Columbia could submit anything they wanted to our new Web site, with four simple exceptions:

• No nudity

• No profanity

• No personal attacks

• No attacks on race, religion, national origin or sexual orientation.

The last two were to ensure the same civility we try to maintain in the Columbia Missourian. A student journalist would work with each submitter — not as an ax-wielding editor, but as a partner who helped the citizen share with the public.

“Share” became our mantra, and MyMissourian became our name. From the beginning, we wanted the readers to be part of the award-winning Columbia Missourian. The traditional paper was ours, but MyMissourian was yours.

And share you did. Through the years we found that almost everyone has a recipe they think others would like. While the Columbia Missourian photographers gave you stunning pictures of calamities and celebrities, citizen photographer John Hall opened our eyes to the beauty of cows and old barns. Then there was the photo snapped by a motorist of a trailered boat on I-70 with a coffin in the cockpit. That led to a daughter’s poignant story of a bass-fishing dad’s last trip to the lake.

You brought the community to a community newspaper. And the world responded. A stream of theses, dissertations and academic papers flew from my team of researchers. Magazines, professional journals and blogs from around the world wrote of the Missouri experiment. I was even invited to go to Korea to showcase our effort to Oh Yeon-Ho and his citizen reporters.

Like MyMissourian, that special team of graduate students has gone on to bigger things. Jeremy Littau, Hans Meyer and Brendan Watson added doctorates to their newsroom experience and are now professors in their own right. Beth Welsh is at the Kansas City Star, Ben Poston is at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Brian Hamman is at the New York Times. Amanda Hicks, who joined the team a short time later, is at Congressional Quarterly’s Roll Call Group.

When we started MyMissourian in 2004, however, it was with the dream that we would someday scratch the “citizen” and just make your participation a part of everyday journalism. Seven years later, the rancor among old-line newshounds and the doubts among researchers have died down. Between blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and MyMissourian, people just take it for granted that they have a voice in the public forum. Today almost every major and minor news organization has some sort of participatory journalism element.

So we are there. Not citizen journalism, not yours-and-ours journalism. Just journalism. Thanks, MyMissourian.

But more to the point, thank you.

Filed under: MyCivicLife.

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Shared by John Hall

John Hall is an avid photographer.

“Dirt Day” in my vernacular is when I head to Strawberry Hill and purchase the potting soil for the heirloom tomato seeds I plant each year. My seeds arrived last week from Tomato Bob in Hilliard, Ohio and yesterday I started setting up the trays, lighting system and fans in order to have sturdy plants by outdoor planting in early May.

Yep, spring is coming to Mid-Missouri although it has felt like spring since November.

It isn’t easy to fool an old guy so I’m sure there is a lot of cold coming between now and the time for the annual rite of tomato planting.

The caravan to the dirt farm today was the driver, two English Cockers and the camera. Since I had it handy I figured I’d take a couple of photos. If you like them that’s a plus. If you didn’t you’ll have to wait until I can take another journey into the great outdoors. Or you can ask that I submit some of the 200+ more photos I took and didn’t include. I think today I was partial to outbuilding and winding streams.

I think I should assess at what my efforts are directed. On a regular basis I share photos and KOM league Flash Reports. The reports go to seven times as many people as the photos but I probably have seven times more comments on the photos than I do the reports. Maybe I should dump the writing effort and just work on photos. I’m going to give that serious consideration.

Filed under: MyOutdoors , MyPhotos.

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Shared by John Hall

John Hall is an avid photographer.

February 2012:

It’s not nice when mother nature tries to fool plant and animal life that spring is here. However, the winter has been mild and the last few days downright spring like. The thunderstorms are due to hit tomorrow.

Before the ice and snow shows up the Jonquils  came out to look around during the last week in January. The rose bush above the early risers  also thinks spring has arrived and is putting on shoots.

For an hour this afternoon a couple of the English Cockers and their buddy went for a little drive into the wetlands which aren’t all that wet. We spotted a Red Tail Hawk in the far distance. The Pelicans are back in large numbers but were too far away, even with an 800mm lens, to capture them in any detail. The Eagles weren’t doing much today but their home was totally visible.

Primarily, I watched a few hundred Herring Gulls fly around for a while and an effort was made to catch them in different situations. It was pretty hard to do holding on to a 13 pound camera lens but I’m sharing a bunch of them anyway.

If you don’t usually receive these photos, let me know and I’ll remove your name from the distribution list. The file that contains the names of those receiving photos went haywire after the last submission and I had to re-create the mailing list from memory. With my memory that wasn’t an easy task.

February 2011:

A year ago at this time I was sending out photos like the ones enclosed.  It just goes to show how unpredictable the seasons can be from year to year.  A year ago at this time I was so sick with the flu that my wife, daughter and the neighbors did what I should have…shoveled the snow.  But, come to think of it, when it got warmer it all melted and shoveling wasn’t really that necessary in the scheme of things.

One recipient of last night’s photos wanted to know where the Cardinals were.  Well, they’re smart.  When they saw February roll around on the calendar they decided going some other place would be the best idea.  The “big Cardinal” went to California and the rest of that bunch from last year are ready to head to Florida in a couple of weeks.

Filed under: MyOutdoors , MyPhotos.

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Shared by Tom Strader

Tom Strader is Edna’s youngest son that was born in Columbia in 1950 and graduated from Hickman High in 1968.

Edna Strader Kaestner, formerly of Columbia, 1939 to 2001, celebrates her 100th birthday with family on Saturday Feb. 11, 2012.

Two celebrations are planned. One is with family and friends on Saturday Feb. 11 and another one is at Briarcliff Assisted Living facility on Feb. 15. Saturday’s celebration will take place from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Faith Lutheran Church, 1716 SW Gage Blvd, Topeka, Kans. The event will be hosted by Harry and Darene Strader and Tom and Theresa Strader.

Edna’s two sons, Harry L. Strader and wife Darlene, of Topeka, Kan. and Tom D. Strader and wife Theresa ofShawnee, Kan., organized the celebration to include Edna’s three grandkids, David, Anne, & Mary from Albuquerque, N. M., three of her five great grandkids from N.M.,  two nieces from the Kansas City area as well as nieces from Sedalia, Mo., Linda Morris, and Houston, Texas, Marilyn Morris. Over 30 family and guests are expected for the celebration.

Edna was born to Wayland and Eta Mae Scott on February 15, 1912 in Houstonia, Mo. She married Harry Strader in 1936 and lived in Sedalia before moving to Columbia in 1939. Harry passed away in 1956 then in 1958 Edna married Alfred Kaestner and they lived in Columbia before Al passed away in 1986. Edna lived alone in Columbia until she moved to Liberty, Mo. in 2001 and on to Topeka in 2006.

Edna currently lives in an assisted living complex in Topeka, Kans. where she continues to be loyal to MIZZOU and continues to “insist” that she’s from Missouri and a Tiger…not a Jayhawk! She doesn’t miss listening to Mizzou football or basketball games.

Edna is a member of the Columbia Bowling Hall of Fame and loves crocheting.  She would love to hear from her friends! Please send mail to: 3224 SW 29th Street, Apt. 40, Topeka, Kansas 66614.

Filed under: MyFamily.

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Shared by John Hall

John Hall is an avid photographer.

Well, I have been waiting to send photos until some good ones were taken. Since none have been I decided to send a few of the dogs, a light snowfall from Saturday and a few shots of my trip to the nursing home early this morning to check on mother.

As you can tell by the bill of fare the dogs have pretty much the say in this household from being petted to having their teeth brushed and ears cleaned. They don’t mind any of it if they can have a treat or in the case of Skye get to watch television. This guy will watch and howl mightily if any type of animal appears on the screen. He doesn’t like a few of network news anchors either and I don’t blame him. I howl at a few of them myself. When his TV howling gets too much to endure I turn off the TV and he’ll run upstairs to see if the TV is on up there. If it isn’t he’ll come back down stairs and howl for me to turn it back on. I make him promise he’ll stop howling if I do so. He always promises to comply but when he sees an animal or some of those TV news anchors he’s right back to the same old thing. At night he’ll come upstairs and anchor his body on my bed in a position so that he’ll be sure not to miss any dog commercial that comes on. We can’t watch animal shows for the howling never stops.

That is about all the excitement to report. This has been one of the mildest winters in recent memory and not much to share in the way of photos. But, if the weather is balmy in January look out for April. I’ll probably be sharing photos of budding to blooming plants in April. Ah, the wonders of the Midwest.

Filed under: MyOutdoors , MyPhotos.

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Tucker the Tiger poses in Tiger Plaza.

Shared by Missourian Staff

Photos by  Jeff Zimmerschied II

Calling all photos of your spirit during the MU/KU basketball game and College GameDay! We invite you to share your photos of signs, painted faces, camp-outs and gear that demonstrate your commitment to the Tigers. We are publishing the photos our Facebook album and potentially at ColumbiaMissourian.com.

Add yours:

• Post to our Facebook wall, here.
• Email: submissions@ColumbiaMissourian.com
• Tweet @CoMissourian

Here is a submission we got from Jeff Zimmerschied II:

“My name is Jeff Zimmerschied II and in honor of beat KU week I painted my yellow lab Tucker to resemble a Bengal Tiger. Attached are a few pictures I took of him on the campus of Ole Mizzou.”

Filed under: MyPets , MyPhotos , MySchools , MySports.

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Marilyn Bettenhausen, CROP WALK coordinator, presents a check for $823 to Helen Robinson, volunteer pantry coordinator at Latter House Food Pantry.

Shared by Fred Koenig

Fred Koenig is an editor for Missouri Conference Publications of the United Methodist Church.

Columbia organizations that help relieve hunger received a $4,000 boost on January 26.

The money was distributed by the organizers of the Columbia-area CROP WALK. It is a result of the CROP WALK that was held in downtown Columbia last October 2. People from over 20 faith communities walked through downtown Columbia and raised $16,459 to address hunger around the world through Church World Service. Of this money, 25 percent is put to work locally. (more…)

Filed under: MyCivicLife.

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