I’ve been wondering of late how many lawyers have hands on, blue collar work experience. Jobs that shape character for life, as my colleague, Bob Ambrogi, put it to me this afternoon.
I was concerned that if lawyers lacked such experience they wouldnt be as good a lawyer.
So walking off the ferry yesterday morning I put the question of blue collar work experience before law out on Twitter.
The resulting responses, and the story they in effect created, made for one of the more inspiring legal journalism pieces I’ve “written.” Or at least the kind of legal journalism I do out here on my blog and social media.
I curated the responses in a Twitter Moments, below. The responses included farming, Army combat medic, fireman, ditch digger and Taco Bell. Thirty-five responses by Wednesday afternoon with more coming in.
As I flipped through the responses/tweets on “Moments” on my iPhone (best way to view) I was consuming journalism in a new form. Inspiring stories on an inspiring medium.
I simply asked a question, received responses from folks I wanted to hear from, curated the responses on existing and free reporting technology and distributed the “story” on that same free media technology.
Who’s to say the story, as reported, wasn’t as powerful as a story a full-time reporter would do for a traditional news publication. Admittedly not with the same thoroughness nor accepted news story format of a news site.
But perhaps a more widely accepted format of journalism for a new generation who have grown up with the net and for those of us who rely on social networks for our news.
Check it out. I’ll be adding the responses still coming in.