A thumbnail dipped in tar: the resuscitation of a remote rural community newspaper using the Distributed Newsroom model

This article has been prepared as a stage in the documentation process for a community capacity building exercise which has become known as the Blackall Newspaper Project. The authors and participants set out to identify key steps in the planning, preparation, publication and evaluation of a community newspaper using the 'distributed newsroom' model (Cokley & Eeles), since an essential part of community capacity building occurs when a community sets up communications, leadership and training makes decisions about policy, and establishes networks for exchange (McGinty). The 'distributed newsroom' model uses low-end, off-the-shelf components on economical local-area, wide-area and Internet networks, to allow journalists not necessarily co-located in place or time to produce news artefacts to a professional standard and to a deadline. Cokley planned to simplify and handover these steps to the community of Blackall - along with training and further evaluation - when The Barcoo Independent became a viable, community-owned and operated business sometime in 2004, following the 'build-operate-transfer' model identified during the 2000-2002 East Timor Project at the Queensland University of Technology, during which Cokley was a lead participant (Cokley et al media, Democracy and Development; Tickle) (see note in Conclusion). This article also serves as a blueprint for small journalism schools such as the one at James Cook University to pursue vocational and community service projects in an educational framework while also pursuing meaningful academic research with medium-to-long-term goals. Journalism student newspapers have been published for many years both here in Australia and overseas, but rarely has one been driven by such a pressing need as demonstrated by this remote community, or from within a school as small or as young as the one at JCU, established as it was only in 1995. An understanding and application of network administration and efficient editorial file management between linked but geographically distributed computer servers is integral to the 'distributed newsroom' model, and in this project, that model was used by its developer, Cokley (Cokley & Eeles), to a greater extent than ever before.