One
editor's definition of community journalism
Prepared remarks of Jan Larson, Wood County editor, the
Sentinel-Tribune, Bowling Green, Ohio, during
panel discussion at Association for Education in Journalism
and Mass Communications conference, Bowling Green State
University, Feb. 24, 2006:
Definitions for community journalism vary greatly.
At the Sentinel-Tribune, we sit somewhere in that vast gray
middle ground of community journalism. We don’t define
the issues that should be tackled or direct the outcomes, but
we listen to what our community cares about, inform the public
of issues that affect them — then we follow them as they
chart their course.
We do this in several ways — by putting
a clear emphasis on local news through giving it a prominent
place in our newspaper; offering consistent coverage of local
policy-making groups; searching for the local impact of national
stories; seeking input from our readers about the news we are
giving them; and being personally involved with our community.
We decided about 10 years ago to make our daily
format more community-friendly. While we had always focused
on local coverage, we made a new commitment to our readers —
showing them that local stories are clearly our priority. Our
front page shifted to all local stories, except for one wire
story on most days. We realize that coverage of our community
is something we can do better than anyone else.
We are the only media in our area to routinely
cover meetings that may be mundane — or may hold some
unexpected action that could alert residents to a Wal-Mart Superstore
eyeing their neighborhood, or to raw sewage being pumped into
the ditch that runs past their homes.
We are frequently the only accessible source of
information about issues such as an upcoming school levy or
zoning change for our readers. While TV news may cover the plight
of a school district on the verge of financial collapse, they
don’t have the time to give their audience details on
exactly how they will be affected if the levy passes or if it
fails. By dedicating ample space to local controversies, we
are able to go beyond the extremists on the fringes of each
issue, but also seek out people in the middle ground —
understanding that most stories have more than two sides.
We realize it’s not only important to listen
to the loudest voices, but also those standing by quietly. It’s
vital to interview not only the movers and shakers in the community,
but also the powerless who are being moved and shaken by them.
Just this week, we told our readers about the
lack of local dentists willing to treat patients who are under
or uninsured. We told them about overcrowding concerns at one
elementary school after another school was closed down. And
we told them about a gambling ring raided in Bowling Green —
and explained the difference between this illegal gambling and
our readers’ poker games every Friday night. We will follow
these and other stories as the community responds to them.
We frequently take national wire stories and look
for ways to localize them. Bird flu, new voting laws and federal
budget cuts are often too weighty or seem too far removed for
many readers to wade through. So it is our job to tell our readers
how our local officials are preparing for the avian flu, how
to use the new touchscreen voting systems required by federal
law, and just how those cuts in local government funds may cut
into something near and dear to them.
Since our news staff lives and works in a relatively
small community we are constantly in touch with local issues,
even when we leave the newsroom. The people who make the decisions
— and those affected by them — are the same people
we run into at the grocery store, barbershop and PTO meetings.
And unlike many other newspaper staffs, our editor does not
discourage us from actively participating in the community.
Nearly all our reporters are involved in volunteer community
groups — not connected with their beats, of course. These
relationships with our community keep us in touch and aware
of local issues.
We also have a liberal “letters to the editor”
policy, which allows all letters to be printed as long as the
author is identified and they aren’t libelous. And we
seek input from our readers by holding “call-in”
nights, giving our audience an opportunity to tell us exactly
what they think.
We have shown a commitment to our community by
alerting them to hard news like a proposed landfill expansion,
a mega dairy farm planning to move next door, or miles of trees
being bulldozed along a river in an effort to alleviate flooding.
And we tell them the human side of stories, by sharing the lives
of their neighbors who face the difficult decision of putting
a loved one in hospice, having to sell their farm because they
can’t pay their bills, or finding a new life after years
of domestic violence. Those kind of stories and photographs
resulted in our newspaper winning 21 state Associated Press
awards last year, including the top award for General Excellence.
We don’t subscribe to the type of community
journalism that dictates which direction residents or governmental
leaders should take on an issue. But by giving our readers the
information they need, we give them a greater opportunity to
get involved and steer their own destiny.
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