Amish Newspaper Keeps Everyone Updated Via Twitter-Like Scribes
Twitter seeks to connect people by asking the simple question, "What are you doing?" But the hot, trendy site isn't doing anything particularly new or groundbreaking. In fact, one newspaper appealing to an unexpected segment of the population has been capitalizing on that basic networking theme for 120 years, and, unlike the majority of print publications, is still thriving.
The Budget, a Sugarcreek, Ohio publication that began in 1890, splits its paper into two sections: one covering local news, and one focusing almost exclusively on updates from the national Amish community. The national section primarily consists of submissions (limited to one page, as opposed to 140 characters) from Amish readers (known as scribes), who give farm and construction reports, church service information, and community updates from around the country.
In 2005, the Budget, which is not actually run by Amish people, announced it would make its local news section available online, but the national edition is still only in print form. This summer, Welsh journalist Jessica Best spent two weeks as an intern with the Budget staff, meeting many members of the Amish population. Featured in a recent New York Times article, Best discusses the old vs. new dichotomy encountered in and around Sugar Creek (e.g., the difficulty of describing a Web site to somebody who's never seen a computer).
Despite the obvious cultural differences, Best noticed many parallels between the Amish community and the outside world. The Budget, like many newspapers, is investigating different methods of attracting younger, more technically-versed readers. (Best noticed several Amish teenagers using cell phones and computers.) And, readers of the Budget tend to pick through scribe updates much like their non-Amish contemporaries search for news on the Net, by selectively looking for specific tidbits.
The piece provides fascinating insight into technology's effect on a community that typically shuns extravagances, and how the media, which has grown increasingly dependent on technology, can learn a lesson from a group sometimes ridiculed for being old-fashioned and out-of-date. To read more of Best's inspiring adventures in Amish country, you can read her blog here. [From: The New York Times and Jessica Best]
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