Bethanny Orr – CBC Radio’s Summer Program Needs a Network

Bethany Orr has been tasked by CBC Radio to produce 10 episodes of a new show about culture clash in North America. As described to me the show will focus on "what happens when cultures crash and clash. Canada and the United States are these huge
experiments in that there are tons of immigrants, Canada has two official languages and people are constantly coming together – so we want to look at how this effects individuals, a building, a neigobhood a family, etc."

The pilot, which focused on sexuality, used Facebook as a networking tool. "I was on Facebook contacting anyone who I thought might have gone through this [sexual otherness] themselves, and I had a positive response. I worried about clogging up people’s Facebook profiles, but that didn’t seem to be an issue – some people even started talking to one another about it. We had somebody in St. Louis and Vancouver – from different religious backgrounds – talking via Facebook about this issue."

I would call that a beat blogging booya. Two strangers – brought together because the reporter had networked them while covering a story that touches in deeply personal issues. Is Bethany Orr a rock star or what?

The real question, however, is how she can expand on this for the next 10 episodes her pilot ensured.

More from Orr:
I want to stay as far away as possible from the marketing and press release style of news gathering. The best stories don’t come from a press release, that’s why networking appeals to me.

Right now she is thinking of doing a two-tier approach: Using a Facebook group for her more net-savvy sources and an email newsletter/listserv for her less wired sources. This might even be paired with a blog – although as Orr noted – it’s take a fair amount of time to really build a network around a blog, and time is her enemy as she produces one episode a week.

As Orr moves forward we will have to keep an eye on how she approaches the Facebook group and email list serve. We’ve seen Facebook used for beat blogging at least twice now and as it continues to become the dominate all-encompassing social networking site – I expect more people to play in it. The bottom line remains the same: This is all about organizing people – it doesn’t matter what platform you use – it’s your ability to reach, connect and organize people. Rinse and repeat that mantra.