For example, I was trying to find stories in Rotherham recently: it’s too small for its own network, but because it is small, individuals feel justified in setting up personalised groups associated with the town such as: ‘Being from Rotherham is not Technically a Disability’, ‘”Rotherham” is a two syllable word’, ‘Get ROTHERHAM on Monopoly board!’ or ‘Rotherham floods appeal’. All of these groups offer great starting points for local stories.

I’m not saying that the added bonus of an area network wouldn’t provide useful information for media organisations, but smaller groups tend to be quirkier, and, if set up by users themselves, more opinionated and more angled; I’m not sure if user orchestrated groups focussing on larger areas such as Manchester or London can ever carry the same quality of intensely personal local stories that smaller groups can, thus putting reporters on smaller papers at an advantage when it comes to facebook.