Participle

Language is powerful.  The words we use are not just reflections of reality, but help to actively construct the way things are. Back in 2005—before the recent spate of youth violence—an article appeared in the Observer describing the anxiety the word hoodie evoked, “Hoodies are, after all, public enemy number one - a social menace right up there in media perception with al-Qaeda and Kate Moss...barely a day goes by without another hoodie headline devoted to their vile behaviour, leaving most of us shaking with fear at the very sight of them...” For every hoodie headline, there are dozens more positive stories about young people that remain untold.  A new innovation might help bring those stories to light, and in the process, spawn a more balanced image of our youth.  Called http://spot.us/ the premise is simple: journalists will pitch stories to local communities, people can vote—with their money—for the stories they want to read, and the articles will be written and distributed to a wide variety of local sources. The question is whether people will pay to read ‘good’ news stories, but the idea of community-generated news content seems to be a step forward.