Interview with Ava Chin

Ava Chin is a professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at the College of Staten Island-CUNY, lives in Park Slope and is a regular contributor to the blog.

How did you get involved with writing for The Local? Why did you want to get involved?

I was pitching a foraging story to the newspaper—a quirky only-in-NY kind of piece about stumbling upon a surprising find in Brooklyn’s equivalent of Central Park—when a former colleague from the Village Voice, who runs a sports blog for the Times, recommended the online version of the paper. From there, I sent the story to various editors of the City Room, who forwarded it to the Local’s Andy Newman, who emailed me, I’d love it if you did a version of this for a new section that the Times is starting. I said, sign me up.

What types of things do you like to contribute to the site?

I write the Urban Forager column—it’s a column that centers around finding wild edibles in the neighborhoods. Mostly, I advocate things like, don’t eradicate that weed—make it into salsa instead!

How does your experience compare to writing for more traditional media?

I’ve written for years for various publications like the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, SPIN, VIBE, and even Martha Stewart online. Because it’s the NY Times’ online content, the process is relatively the same as with print—there’s a rigorous editing process where an editor and a top editor look at the work, and I answer any queries they may have.

How are journalistic models of citizen reporting advantageous?

What challenges or limitations do citizen reporting news sites face?

In general, citizen-reporting sites may lack quality controls, especially if they’re not run by professionals--and by that I mean folks trained to edit copy and to consider accuracy in reporting.

What challenges does The Local specifically face? What successes have you seen with the site?

At first the Local faced some skepticism from some neighbors—which is understandable. Sort of a, “Who are you and why are you coming in here? We don’t need you to change the nature of our neighborhood and further raise the price of rents.” But from what I can see residents have gotten over that and are happy they have a sort of information about where they live. And people from all over Brooklyn are reading it—not just in the targeted areas of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

As long as the NYT name is on this blog, they will have to maintain some oversight with its content. Do you think moving to a citizen generated site is reasonable/sustainable? How much oversight do you think the NYT will need to maintain?

As a journalist and professor of nonfiction writing/journalism at CUNY-Staten Island (City University of New York), I think it’s great that the Times DOES oversee the content—it’s a great brand and why water it down with lesser quality?

It’s funny because even while the Times calls all of its online content a “blog” it’s not a “blog” in the traditional sense of the word—we tend to think of blogs as spontaneous, unedited writing that just erupts from the writer’s head. The Times blogs have all the quality controls of a great publication: you pitch an idea to an editor (at least initially, until you establish yourself), then the story goes through that person and a top editor as well. It’s like the Times is redefining the idea of a blog.

Given that, do you think a site like this is possible to implement and maintain in other communities?

As mentioned before, I’m trained as a journalist and am a professor of nonfiction/journalism at CUNY, so I believe that online sites SHOULD maintain quality and accuracy in reporting.

What sort of process do you go through to submit your writing? Can you post/report whenever you want or does your work go through editors at the NYT? Are you given specific topics/ideas to blog about?

(See my answer above to “How much oversight…”). The Urban Forager comes out about twice a month. I usually email my editor the ideas I have and then go out into the field—but I never know what I’ll find. When I first went out into Fort Greene, which is a very urban environment with little green spaces, it was the dead of winter, and I was like, what could I possibly find that’s growing outside? Turns out there were wild scallions, dandelion, and plantain.

Do you anticipate being a long-term contributor to this blog?

Yes, I’m doing the Urban Forager throughout the foraging season, which goes through the winter. Even in December, I’ve found edible weeds poking up through the snow.

Do you see a site like this being able to replace a traditional local newspaper?

I hate to think of traditional newspapers dying out, and I keep thinking of all those people who don’t have computers at home—and there are many. What about them? How are they going to get the news aside from watching it on television or listening to it on the radio?