The conversation does not end here.

Freivogel, William H.

This special report on social media's influence on the Ferguson story is full of contradictions.

One is the presentation itself: Long-form journalism in a magazine is the essence of old media--but the Ferguson story is not a story of old media. It's a story of new media. It's difficult on the printed page to portray the dynamism of the social media universe that posted hundreds of thousands of tweets about Michael Brown's death before cable news broadcast its first words. The first tweet showing Michael Brown's body on the street was transmitted about four minutes after he fell.

We have an answer for old media presentation of a new media story. The answer is FERGUSONREPORT.NET. This report on Ferguson as America's Arab Spring Moment is not confined to these pages. The companion website contains all of the stories and illustrations in this magazine along with links to reports, tweets and other digital information. In addition the online site contains audio files of in-depth interviews with some of the leading activists who are profiled in the report. This cache of audio files will grow as additional people tell their stories of how social media connected them with other activists and grew a new civil rights movement.

The website also provides you with a convenient place to tell your own stories about Ferguson and to comment on the ones already told. With your participation, this can be a dynamic history of the way St. Louis and the nation come to grips with the issues of race and policing that the social media revolution of Ferguson brought to the our attention.