I tried my first weekly news recap on January 20th, 2023, publishing 7 in total through March 3rd, 2023.
These early recaps included some original reporting. I stopped publishing them because it was too much work & I had other priorities.
Then in October or November 2023, I began reading most the news from WAND and Herald & Review.
I thought it would be pretty easy to write up quick little summaries of articles I read, so on December 1st, 8th, and 15th I published weekly news recaps. They did not include any original reporting from me.
Then I took some time off work due to illness, so I have not published a recap since then.
While I was working on those three December recaps, and during my sick time, I've been thinking about Fair Use and Copyright.
These more recent recaps don't include original reporting from me, and news outlets need their own readers/viewers in order to make money from their content.
So, I've made an effort to provide summaries of articles while directing people to Herald & Review or WAND for more information.
It is not my intention to steal content or to hurt local news outlets.
It is my intention to provide the public with an easy and quick way to know what's going on in Decatur Illinois, especially with regard to local politics.
This is something I personally feel our local outlets are failing to do, and as a result I only keep up on the news when I make it a part of my job here at Decatur Vote.
However, I am no longer planning to write and publish weekly news recaps, for a few reasons:
- I'm concerned about the copyright issues discussed above.
- Other tasks need my attention, and I work limited hours for personal health reasons.
- I think I have a better solution in mind.
Regarding the "better" solution - I envision a feed of factoids.
Essentially, I would record quick facts and link to the source, and you'd get to see the factoids in a list.
I believe this approach is more transformative than my weekly-recaps approach. Being transformative means I'm adding something meaningful, something new, and not just stealing someone else's content.
I believe my existing recaps are transformative enough to constitue Fair Use, but I also believe this new solution would be more transformative.
I also believe this approach will be a much better way to catalogue information - to keep a history of who's being appointed to government positions, or keep a history of major events like the new garbage service contract, or to record announcements like the Decatur Police Deparment's recent post about crime statistics.
And I believe this would be a better way to share and access information.
This solution will require updates to the website, though.
And I'm not sure when I'll get this done. Right now, it's just an idea, and I'm working on other website updates that have been long delayed.
I'm sorry to those who were looking forward to my weekly news recaps. Thank you for reading.