Come Y’all, Contribute | The Scoop

photo by Shannon Claire

by Andrew Norman

Here's an editorial secret: Hear Nebraska contributors scour social media channels for Nebraska music news we harvest for these hungry digital pages. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, Soundcloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, FourSquare — you can find us on any of these pages, and surely others our interns haven't revealed to me yet. We follow bands, venues, small businesses and other organizations' feeds to find compelling video, photo, audio and story content.

They're news nuggets that just need to be sourced, put into context, converted to style, posted and shared. These feeds are like manna for our reporters, who are tasked with documenting and broadcasting Nebraska's unique music culture. But while this low-lying fruit is sweet and plentiful, it requires talented digital farmers who have diverse interests and skills to produce it. (End: analogy.)

You know the saying: It's good work, when you can get it. This is good work and we have it. We're looking for writers, photographers, videographers and other content producers to help us aggregate these Nebraska-music-related stories. We need writers from every Nebraska city — Scottsbluff to Plattsmouth — who are into every type of music to produce this and other original content (such as traditional interviews, features and reviews). If you're down for this nonprofit's cause, contact managing editor Michael Todd at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.

Here's another secret: You don't have to talk to us to create content on hearnebraska.org. We believe in DIY at HN, both as a principle and as an operating procedure. So we offer the Your News section on our homepage for anyone who wants to create a Nebraska-music-related blog, band page, venue page or event. If you already have a blog, I'm sure our readers would love to see it in their hearnebraska.org feed. Please post it here. If you have trouble, contact us. We'll help you.

Please share these secrets.

***

Hear Nebraska recently added a couple farm hands. Interns Krystal Sidzyik and Matthew Masin are both taking the reins of social media channels for us.

Krystal is an Omaha native, journalism major and Gateway staff writer at UNO. Among her duties at HN, she's charged with writing weekly stories and shooting photos. And she's taking on our nascent Google+ page, sharing engaging content produced by us and the community.

Matthew is a Lincoln native, journalism major and Daily Nebraskan staff photographer at my alma mater, UNL. He'll be producing weekly photo stories and building our Pinterest page, primarily with images he captures.

We're happy to have these talented additions to the Hear Nebraska family. You'll be seeing them at shows and their bylines here soon. Until then, find them on our Google+ and Pinterest pages.

Andrew Norman is Hear Nebraska's editor-in-chief in charge of raising funds to sustain this officially registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. If you enjoy Hear Nebraska and want to see it continue to grow, please help us by donating any amount. It's greatly appreciated. Contact Norman at andrewn@hearnebraska.org.