Eugene Driscoll's Independent News Site

Eugene Driscoll is editor of Valley Independent Sentinel, a non-profit news source covering the Naugatuck Valley area in Connecticut, which includes the towns of Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, and Shelton. This forward-thinking journalist team, which includes Driscoll, a field reporter, and about 6 freelance writers, provides the Valley with an alternate, intimate, and community-based source for everything that is currently happening in these towns. Everything from drive by shootings in Derby to civil war re-enactments in Shelton is featured on the site. The site relies on a police scanner, local sources, government meetings, and daily observations to keep people in the Valley area knowledgeable on what is going on in their area.

Driscoll, who started out working in the Hartford Courant at a desk job, had the desire to break out from a tedious workspace and jump into what he calls "the chase for information". Three months ago, he was hired to help run this small online news source, doing everything from writing and editing stories of his choosing to taking out the garbage at the end of the week. The editor, who lives in Derby, uses local sources and citizen journalism to his advantage. However, the Valley Independent Sentinel is right up there with all the daily papers as far as local breaking news; his field reporter will often have a live stream at the scene of an event, such as a fire, using a flip camera and other such devices to make it accessible for subscribers to the site. Like other innovative news papers, Driscoll and his team use modern technologies to their benefit, making their reporting competitive and compelling.

But not just anyone can comment on the issues and stories on the site; Driscoll, a journalist not concerned with using ignorant comments as a way to get hits on the new site's page, has made it so only subscribers can comment on the stories, and all comments are screened for obscenities. Because of his choice to be true to his work, he uses Facebook, Twitter, and the old fashion way, by word of mouth, to get more hits and subscribers to the site.

Driscoll finds that the last method has created a sense of community and appreciation between himself, his news site and the people who live in the Valley. However, he expresses fears that the public has become apathetic to what is going on in the world, and fears for the press's life in the future. But he's a journalist in it for the love of reporting, of chasing information, and for forging a sense of community where he lives and works. Hopefully, those qualities are the future of the press and of journalism.

The link for this site is valleyindy.org