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There’s a difference between being a presence, and being engaged.

Think about the last time you were in school. Remember the kid who merely came to class, and declared “Present” during roll call before assuming a reticent role for the rest of the hour? Yeah, maybe bits and pieces. 

Now think about the student who always asked questions, had a personality, told a funny joke every once in a while, and talked with other classmates. And maybe, he or she would even offer a solution. 

This student might’ve been someone you admired, were friends with, or someone you found to be irksome.  But it’s likely this person occupies more than bits and pieces of your memory. 

For me, Civil Beat has been closer to the former, at least in recent times. This news site got off to a strong start, with Dan Zelikman as community host and many reporters engaging in the comments. 

Since then, Civil Beat sharpened its focus on journalism to raise Honolulu’s quality of life. But it eventually slid into becoming a social media presence with little engagement as reporters hammered away at their stories. As engagement editor, I aim to change that.  

This position is a first for Hawaii, so far the only job at a news organization with a pure social media focus.

Journalists believe the stories we tell are important. That’s why their main job is to tell these stories. My job will be to ensure that the right community stakeholders see the stories we write. Social media engagement is part of a reporter’s job, but making engagement my sole priority ensures that both of our jobs will get done in the best way possible, and that the community becomes loyal followers of Hawaii’s narrative.

Social media is inseparable from the news process. Look no further than other efforts here in our state: KITV with its Facebook Friendcasts; KHON hiring a master of all things web in Jared Kuroiwa; Hawaii News Now’s serious and sometimes self-deprecating engagement (big fan of their “Hawaii News Not”); and of course, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, where many of my former colleagues (, to name a few) routinely use social media most properly as a news-gathering tool.

Every real journalist out there truly cares about their audience and community, even if they aren’t active on social media. Journalists engage with their community all the time.

But the era of posting a story and leaving it to sit until the next day is over. Love it or hate it, the 24-hour news cycle is a beast that must be fed, thanks to a ravenous audience that is smarter, busier and more agile to jump from source to source, forever in search of context to the news that affects them. If content is king, context surely rules by its side.

I’ll be out and about in the community on and offline. I’ll be reintroducing the concept of opening up our newsroom for discussions and other events (and no, I will not call them “beatups”). Sometimes, I might even criticize how we approached a story, and no doubt our readers have plenty to say about that. I want give our audience autonomy and control over what we do, as we live up to our contract to provide information. This includes soliciting more submissions for our “Community Voices” section. 

When it comes to breaking news — Election Night, a big storm — I’ll take the helm on social media and the site (if I wasn’t getting paid for it, I’d do it for fun anyway). I’ll also be aggregating and curating content from the community or other sources to provide some information that Civil Beat typically might not cover. 

Social media isn’t a checklist item to scratch out, and it isn’t just a broadcasting tool. Interactivity is a must, particularly if we hope to live up to our vision of a true civic square. I’m here to open our newsroom doors to you, so we can continue to understand our home.

Let’s start with this, “Aloha, how’s it? I’m Gene, and I’m a journalist.”

After more than a year orbiting outside the industry, that felt good to write again.