Why Covering Local News Matters
By Albert B. Kelly
A little over a week ago I came across a column by
Star-Ledger Columnist Paul Mulshine sharing his concern on a recent bill with $5
million in State funding that, when and if available, would go to the nonprofit
organization “Free Press” which focuses on strengthening and reviving local
media in the Garden State. The organization is focused on addressing the lack
of regular local news coverage in our communities. The column, if I understood it correctly, points
out the obvious conflict of having government fund, in part or in whole, the very
press charged with reporting on government.
As Mr. Mulshine points out, you don’t bite the hand that
feeds you. I agree with him and while I am not sure what the answer is for the void
in local coverage, as a mayor of a community that lacks the wall-to-wall reporting
that comes from a local newspaper, my hope is that people far smarter than me can
come up with ideas on how to enable local newspapers and journalists to fill
the void and provide more local coverage minus any apparent conflicts.
I say that because in the absence of the type of day-to-day
and week-to-week local coverage that community-based newspapers once provided, we’re
basically left with headlines and those headlines are generally of the
“if-it-bleeds-it-leads” variety. What that means is that the coverage is
lopsided in favor of whatever is attention-grabbing and high profile (read crime).
This tendency toward the juicy headline isn’t new; it has always been one of
the ingredients of news, it’s just that today, it seems to be the only
ingredient.
That’s not anyone’s fault and there’s nothing sinister here,
it’s what happens when media outlets are forced to cover more with less. This
is the consequence of the disruptive impacts that digital and social media has
on traditional journalism. Media outlets were forced to consolidate and cut
costs across the board as advertising and subscription dollars shifted from
print media to online and from news outlets to social media platforms.
So much so that these days, when people see the news vans
from the network affiliates, they just assume there’s been murder, someone’s
being sentenced for a murder, or there’s been some type of bad fire or accident
and if anecdotal evidence counts for anything- they’re usually right. The
upshot is that citizens think these are the only things happening in the
community because they don’t get coverage of decisions and happenings that
while impactful, are far less attention-grabbing.
Let’s face it, City Council meetings, like zoning board
meetings and planning board meetings can be very dry and boring affairs because
of the subject matter. Yet, it is from the press coverage of these meetings
that residents can learn about the progress of a given project or about future
plans, goals and objectives. Back in the day, when local newspapers had the
staff to cover these meetings, it was possible for citizens to get a fuller
picture of their community and what was happening- not so much today.
If we had that type of coverage now, citizens would be
better informed about a host of projects such as closing the old landfill in
City Park and turning it into passive recreation and they might also know more
about efforts on the redevelopment plan for the former “Tin Can” site promoting
more neighborhood-based recreation. Regular local coverage would ensure that
residents remain well-informed on progress related to the Food Specialization
Center and the new downtown building.
The street-level coverage previously afforded local
government would have been the main way citizens knew about the revitalization
of the Bridgeton Villas, the progress of the Wawa development, Bridgeton’s
partnership with Rutgers University on a planning grant for a smart food
technology center, the renovation of the Nail House museum in City Park, and
numerous other important steps forward that represent progress and hope in what
is otherwise perceived as just a bleak landscape.
Yet, the progress and hope behind these developments doesn’t
take away the pain, fear, or anger behind any given headline nor do they
provide comfort to the families impacted-- we’re talking about personal tragedy
and nothing takes that away. But in the broader space between perception and
reality that marks the lifecycle of a small city; it was the local newspapers
and reporters- simply by covering things- that provided a community with a full
and balanced reflection of itself and that’s no small thing.