Alysia Welch-Chester has her eye on Trenton. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
By Jim Carlucci

Alysia Welch-Chester wears many hats. When not working for the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce, she is chief cook and bottle washer for Alysia’s Brownies, and she’s also an occasional blogger. Welch-Chester is married to West Ward Councilman Zachary Chester.

Welch-Chester has recently added a new line to her resume: citizen journalist. In the summer she started recording videos of various press conferences in the city and posting them to the Internet. We caught up with Alysia in between events for Trenton’s Small Business Week to find out more about her latest adventures in activism.

Trenton Downtowner: With everything you have on your plate, why did you decide to take on the role of citizen reporter?

Alysia Welch-Chester: When Zach was actively running for office, I had made a decision to not attend council meetings or speak out.

TD: Why not?

AW-C: People are not going to say, “Oh, that’s Alysia Welch-Chester, citizen activist in Trenton.” They are going to say, “That’s Councilman Chester’s wife.” Not that I plan to do anything horrible or say anything horrible in my opinion at least, but I figure that to resist temptation I would not attend meetings.

But over the summer, when I got word that a particular council meeting was going to be especially interesting, I decided to attend and I listened with great interest. I returned the following month, and listened and was compelled to speak.

Some time after that, I think it was during Hurricane Irene, I found out about the mayor’s press conferences and I wanted to attend.

I felt very strongly that I wanted to be at these press conferences, and I knew that there were other citizens that would like to be there, but due to their schedules or work or that they’re dealing with a house that they were evacuated from, there is information that somebody should share with the general public.

Since I had the resources to do it, which is a phone with a camera in it, why not do that? Just post it out there, unedited, and that way no one can accuse me of doing sound bites and things.

TD: You say you like to upload your videos in a raw state so there is less of a chance of people saying you have manipulated it. Do you see possibly getting more polished?

AW-C: Maybe. I can see the value. If I put up 12 minutes of raw video footage, someone may not be able to sit through that entire footage to see the most interesting and relevant parts of it.

TD: But you didn’t just record the proceedings…

AW-C: I would occasionally ask questions that I think should be posed when you are having a press conference.

You know that people get very worried about the water situation. Anything with the water, the river, people get very nervous. Sometimes rumors start. Surprisingly, at the press conference, no one volunteered the information on the status of the water utility, so I asked.

Or simple things like when the next press conference is going to be. That’s something I think would be Communications 101, so I would just ask those questions, too. Kind of acting like a citizen journalist but just wanting the information, wanting to share it with the public at large.

TD: Do you find that there is a hole, a gap, in the media coverage for local news and information?

AW-C: Oh, definitely! I can’t be everywhere and I hope my fellow citizens will report things. There is clearly a hole.

Media is changing. If something happening in Trenton is not being a priority, [traditional media] may not be able to show up; a press conference may be held at the last minute and they may not be able to show up. So I’m hoping that, as I have done, other citizens will step up and volunteer their services to have this information available to the public. It’s challenging. There’s a lot of information and sometimes I wish there was more information coming out in the city of Trenton.

We often say “someone should do this” or “someone should do that.” I just took a position that in this case I need to be that someone. Maybe there are people who aren’t as technologically savvy as I am or aren’t comfortable asking simple questions, so I felt it was important that since I was comfortable, and had the ability, that it was my responsibility to tax-paying citizens and others who are just concerned about the city of Trenton to have that information available when I’m able to.

TD: What about the media mix: the Internet, email, newspapers, radio, TV, etc. Not everyone has access to every communications channel. Is one more relevant than the others, or is it important to make use of all them?

AW-C: I think that mix is going to be important because we are still going to have some people who only get their news by the printed paper. Some people will only get their news from radio or television and then there are others of us who may be getting our news from the palm of our hand via our smartphones.

So I think it is important that there are as many avenues to deliver the information as possible and if there is overlap, that’s fine. It also provides a way to get different perspectives. When we have our two dailies here you can read the reporting on the same topic and get a different story from each. I prefer more information to not enough.

This hyperlocal media is very important. You see them springing up across the state and around the country. People see a need. It can just be concerned citizens that are doing it, but I think it can also be a viable business model. But the important piece is getting the information out to people.

TD: Getting the public to avail themselves of what’s out there is the other half of the battle. You can post videos of all the press conferences and council meetings you want to and share the information; you can put it on the table, but if nobody is there to take it how do you deal with that?

AW-C: Well, I think it is easier now that we have all of this social media to tap into.

TD: If you are online.

AW-C: Right, if you are online. I don’t know what to say about someone like my grandmother who is in her eighties. She’s not about to go online; she’s not going to be on the computer. She’ll get her information the traditional way from the printed newspaper. So I know that we are not going to be able to reach everyone, but a printed newspaper doesn’t reach everyone either.

I don’t know what that solution is. How to get it to people other than putting it on social media and you can maybe get something written about it. Some people may use both online and in print.

It’s something I haven’t given a lot of thought to. We’re never going to be able to reach everybody.

Some people are just as happy not knowing anything. And it’s frustrating. I don’t know if it is the majority of our population who don’t know who our public officials are, what their function is: things we should all know. I do know that the world is run by those who show up and if you are not engaged and educating yourself so you can participate, then I will just take it over. (Laughs)

TD: What do you hope results from this effort?

AW-C: I would like more people to be aware. I would like other citizens, average people, contributing just because you want others to have information that you happen to have. Awareness. Access. So people can be able to make better informed decisions.

TD: The lack of direct, open and honest communication is a problem. It is a good thing that there are people like you and the various bloggers who are bringing out some of these things and teasing out the information.

AW-C: It was an emergency during Irene. There was definitely a lack of communication. I’ve noticed a problem with any information—accurate information, timely information, any kind of information—and I know there are others out there that share that frustration. So me going to a press conference and recording what information they had and asking questions about information I thought was lacking, I think that is important.

When you have something like a Hurricane Irene or floods that happened after, all the different aspects from the water supply to where people are going to be housed to making sure people are aware that they need to evacuate in a timely fashion—-those are all pieces of communication, even if it isn’t what people want to hear. And it is important to get it out.

TD: Are you worried about anyone saying you have an agenda to make this person look bad or that person look good? Is this a concern?

AW-C: I can’t be worried about it at this point. I think that regardless of what I do, people are going to say I have an agenda because of who I’m married to or people that I am friends with. And I’m not going to let that stop me from doing what I think is right. Let them talk. That is fine. I just want to be effective in getting information out.

I’m not doing this to attack any person or the administration even though I think things can be improved. People will think what they want to think, but I will continue to get information out there.

Beyond being married to someone who happens to hold a part-time elected position that he got long after we were married, I am a tax-paying citizen and a resident who is very passionate about Trenton. I am going to do what I think is best for the place that I call home.