Real STL News, a local news outlet, came to Ms. Goff’s Journalism 1 class on Dec. 12, to discuss the importance of Live Journalism and how students can “tell their own story” in their communities.
Real STL News began as a local news blog on Facebook and quickly took off in popularity. On average, their facebook page receives over 1 million visits, and as of Dec. 12, they have 73,829 followers on Facebook. Their famous followers include rappers, Chingy and Nelly. Real STL News covers events mainly in the often underrepresented and misrepresented North County and city communities.
The Real STL News Facebook Page states, “We are for the community because we are the community. There are no Monetary incentives for what we do”.
The week before, students conducted preliminary research on the news outlet and wrote several interview questions for the event. Students learned about how Real STL News began, how they cover their stories, and what students can do to support and continue the mission of telling the story of their community.
“We definitely believe in telling your own story”, Cam, a reporter from Real STL News says. Cam emphasizes the importance of people from the community telling the stories, as opposed to people who are not around when events occur, telling the story. “A lot of people will come to your neighborhood, come to your community, then they try to tell your story. So, at the end of the day, it’s always best for you to tell your own story”.
Real STL News hopes to influence other news media to better represent the North County community.
Another reporter from Real STL News, Justice, says this; “You’re not going to see nobody that looks like me with colored dreadlocks on Channel 2 or Channel 4, so a lot of people feel like we may be able to open a door for people that aren’t just the basic person that they usually look for”.
As journalism students come to the end of the semester, Real STL News reporter, Pebbles, offers opportunities
to get involved in journalism at the student level;
“If you are interested, just message us on Facebook and we might be able to work with you, so you can get to know what we do.”
At this time, Real STL News operates solely on volunteer journalism. Pebbles, Justice, and Cam all participate in volunteer work around the community and still make the time to cover breaking news events, that are often not covered by larger news outlets. To support Real STL News, follow their Facebook page @realstlnews.
