About Us
Produced by Two Old Guys from New Baltimore with nothing better to do.
TheOpinionPage.Online
A democracy project assisting local citizens to share their views on local issues in a public forum, similar to the opinion page of a local newspaper.
TheOpinionPage.Online is a project produced by TheOpinionPage.Online LLC.
TheOpinionPage.Online LLC is a social advocacy organization engaged in local applied cyber journalism.
- Making Public Opinion More Public.
Empower your voice:
Shape local discussions and drive community change.
TheOpinionPage.Online is…
TheOpinionPage.Online is an online democracy project produced by The OpinionPage.Online LLC.
TheOpinionPage.Online uses social media platforms to foster the exchange of ideas at the most local level.
Elements of cyber journalism will be used to video record, edit, upload and archive the views of people from the local community and environs on matters great or small, but especially those matters closest to local civic and social concerns.
We believe over time the demise of small local newspapers has subtracted from democracy a once well-used forum for community discourse, social advocacy and connectivity. An unintended consequence of the gradual loss of this venue is un-empowerment which TheOpinionPage.Online will help to ameliorate.
TheOpinionPage.Online seeks to re-empower local citizens and revitalize local democracy by encouraging and supporting people to share their views in an updated public forum with the immediacy, efficiency, connectivity and responsiveness prevailing in local applied cyber journalism.
Revised 12.09.2024
Express you concerns: Let your voice be heard in local matters
Our Vision:
Restoration of a forum where local views and voices may multiply into local conversations. The demise of local newspapers left an empty space in smaller, more rural, communities. With creative use of social media and technology that space can now be renewed, updated and re-energized.
TheOpinionPage.Online is a safe space for self expression and transparent in its purposes and actions. It is a civil and structured space and the structure is fair, respectful of free speech norms and open to public view. It is a free service created as a project for local democracy.
On TheOpinionPage.Online website are project descriptions, explanations and expectations for use that are clearly stated and always available in the documents:
1) Terms of Service, 2) Permission to Record, 3) Introducing TheOpinionPage.Online: Local Applied CyberJournalism.
This democracy project is an experiment in journalism and in building community consensus the old fashioned way; by the processes of dialogue leading to consensus. We do not seek to control, direct or select the dialogue. However, editorial control is exercised in ways explained in the above documents which are posted on TheOpinionPage.Online website.
Our style of journalism is to remove the reporter who is building a story or point of view by questioning, selecting responses but leaving out the rest of the individual being interviewed. In our style of journalism we turn the “mic” over to the participant.
To Make Public Opinion More Pubic we will post opinions to social media where others may comment and join the discussion.
For further information about TheOpinionPage.Online click on the links on the website.
GOALS
To have a publicly available, voluntary journalistic service which increases public awareness, motivation and interest in issues great and small which are of concern to our local community.
To conduct the service of TheOpinionPage.Online in such away that its processes are transparent, in accord with the norms of free speech and open to public view. Achieving the necessary structure to support transparency relies on the above documents.
Introducing TheOpinionPage.Online: Local Applied Cyber Journalism.
From the beginning democracy in America has been local.
TheOpinionPage.Online continues that tradition by updating the local conversation, local views and voices, that are often obscured by the thunderous presence of “The Media”.
A goal of the TheOpinionPage.Online is to use the tools of current social media to revitalize local discourse at the very local level.
With the gradual demise of small local newspapers a public space was lost that connected communities and citizens with issues too local to gain the attention of the surviving newspapers and too minor to gain the attention of new media. We believe that creating an updated space for local views on issues important to the local community will re-strengthen democracy at the roots.
The initiative to record begins when an interested person contacts TheOpinionPage.Online using the Contact form on TheOpinionPage.Online website. Subsequently, we will contact them, set a date, time and place for a video session, after which we will publicly post the video to our YouTube website.
TheOpinionPage.Online does not solicit opinions of users of our service. We do not interview. The initiative to express an opinion or point of view is always an individual prerogative which we assist with supported access. In our view the whole story is part of the whole individual. We are not gathering information to support a predetermined story line. Instead we are giving the origin of all stories, the complex individual, a means to project a more complete voice. The story is in the accumulation of voices and their dialogue. The method is contemporary and pragmatic.
In a word: Making Public Opinion More Public
Supported access means TheOpinionPage.Online will do the technology, the points of view originate and accumulate in the videoed opinions posted to our YouTube website and in the local dialogue which may ensue.
In a word: We’ll do the technology. The point of view is up to you.
While we welcome local voices on important non-local issues, this venue seeks to amplify local dialogue to assist in establishing local common ground for civic and civil conversations.
In a word: Local Views and Local Voices on Issues Great and Small
TheOpinionPage.Online is a free service which will video record a user’s opinion up to two minutes in length. Expectations for using our service are similar to what one may be familiar with from traditional newspaper: Respectful, tolerant speech and common courtesy are expected.
As TheOpinionPage.Online will be a forum for robust discussions, it must also be a safe space for individual expression. The full statement of expectations for users are in the video on TheOpinionPage.Online website, in the Terms of Service and in the Video Script which are all on the website. We encourage users of TheOpinionPage.Online to also be familiar with the Permission to Record (Release) which must be signed before a video session.
TheOpinionPage.Online reserves the right to determine what qualifies and what does not qualify as an issue for inclusion in TheOpinionPage.Online website and OpinionPage.Online YouTube channel and social media sites.
Participants are solely responsible for their opinions and all statements, facts and claims they make during recording. TheOpinionPage.Online is not responsible to fact-check or verify facts or statements or claims made by users
Users may not slander, defame, libel, deliberately misinform, or engage in prejudicial, discriminatory or hate speech in their recorded opinions.
TheOpinionPage.Online reserves the right to determine if user language and stated opinions are appropriate and meet the standards for publishing in TheOpinionPage.Online.
TheOpinionPage.Online reserves the right to edit recordings prior to publishing as it deems necessary for production or other purposes.
Users’ recordings may be used to create larger thematic productions on various issues. This means individual user opinions previously recorded may be edited and combined with other recorded opinions to create summative or informational productions in various media on identified issues.
All recordings become the property of TheOpinionPage.Online which may archive all recordings indefinitely to provide an historical record. This means that recordings may remain posted or otherwise maintained indefinitely and may remain so as determined by TheOpinionPage.Online.
Disclaimers
Users of TheOpinionPage.Online are solely responsible for their views and statements. Recording and publishing opinions of users does not mean and does not imply that TheOpinionPage.Online is for or against, or supports or does not support the opinions of users.
The OpinionPage.Online welcomes all users and their opinions and will strive to maintain the intention and fidelity of recorded opinions.
The OpinionPage.Online does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender preference, political affiliation or lack thereof.
Revised: 12/09/2024