stories from the Realm

Honolulu Civil Beat, Pierre Omidyar’s new journalism project, officially launched today. As excited as I am to witness the birth of a new media organization in my home state, I was disappointed when I learned that Civil Beat is planning to charge $20 a month for access to its site – disappointed because I want to see what happens with it, but I don’t know if I’m willing to pay the fee.

Conflicted by this, I decided to seek advice from the twitterverse, where more of my journalism friends spend their time. I posted a status update asking whether people though it was worth it for me to fork over the money. And CivilBeat responded to me, saying, “Definitely don’t go without life’s necessities!”

Okay. Wait a minute. Life’s necessities? Can we examine that statement for a bit?

As a college student, I live out of state for nearly 9 months a year, so even though I’m incredibly interested in what goes on in Hawaii, I don’t keep up with its news every single day. Currently, I check the Advertiser and Star Bulletin websites about once a week. I also have a limited income. To put it frankly, $20 could probably feed me for a week. I already pay a phone bill, electricity, internet, and a storage bill – can I really afford to pay another monthly bill, for a service that, while valuable, I may not use every day? Given the choice between Netflix ($15 a month for entertainment) and Civil Beat ($20 a month for civic discourse), which one do you think the average college student would pick?

Is this one of life’s necessities?

Civil Beat has just launched, and I don’t know enough about it to make broad, sweeping judgments about its worth. But I know enough to be a little worried. As a journalist I desperately want – even need — this project to be successful, but I think I can speak for the majority of Hawaii’s out-of-state college students when I say that I’m not sure this is worth my money. Yet the discourse of Civil Beat will suffer if we are not involved. We’re going to be moving back home in 3 or 4 years, and we’re going to be affected by the same government decisions and job market factors that affect everyone else currently in the state – but I’m not sure our voices are going to be heard in this civic square.

This isn’t just about college students. This is about low-income families living in the Kalihi housing projects. This is about recent immigrants from Asia who need information about their new home. This is about race and class lines. So I worry, because I know there are more people out there like me, who can’t decide if $20 is worth what they’re going to get in return. I can get my Hawaii news for free on other websites.

I’ve read a few of the comments threads on Civil Beat, and the discourse that’s happening there is tremendously involved, intelligent, and insightful — but I still worry. How can a website act as a true “civic square” if it only represents the views and comments of the people who are willing to pay for a privilege?

I’ve decided to try out Civil Beat for a 15 days, while the fee is reduced, and in 2 weeks I’ll try to answer that question — is this one of life’s necessities? And can this site represent my home accurately with a paywall in place? I’ll let you know what I find later.