Local News is Like Your Teenager
Top Story: Local News is Like Your Teenager
Local news is misunderstood.
Much like your teenager — or the teenager you once were — it is trying to find its way in a difficult, ever-changing environment.
This can lead to a lot of hand-wringing. And frankly, it can also lead to a lot of confusion. People in charge of shepherding local news into the next century are getting scared and they’re wondering: “Is it disappearing?”
Reporting Right understands the confusion. But, it’s time to get a grip.
The important thing to remember is that:
But, they are getting it in different places, via different entry points…which isn’t bad if you understand how the online ecosystem actually works.
Read on. You may be surprised to discover, YOU still matter A LOT.
5 Facts About Local News Today
Traditional media is still the trendsetter
You know all those social media influencers chitchatting about the news. Well, guess where they get that news?
An overwhelming number of them still turn to daily news stories. (That’s you!) They want (and need) new information on topics people are concerned about to keep their followers coming. In other words, they need content, which is what you provide.
Trickle Down (Not the Reagan-kind) is real
This means — whether you realize or not — what local stories you decide to focus on in your reporting are likely going to be what gets the most play in any given day inside your local online eco-system.
The stories you do really matter
That means when you pitch stories to your editor, you aren’t just setting the agenda for your news outlet. You’re setting the local online agenda.
Choose wisely
In an era of rampant misinformation, your choices matter even more. If you want residents to know the truth about why schools are closing in your rural community, which local officials are supporting ICE, as it threatens neighborhoods, or how a local rep actually voted on Medicaid, report on it. You’d be surprised to discover how far and wide a lot of the local stories you are doing are actually going on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, etc…
Mules are everywhere
Remember during Covid, when you wanted to know what vaccine to take. I bet you asked your friend who majored in biology; or your mom, the doctor; or your girlfriend who works as a pharmacist. In other words, you asked the trusted messengers in your life who did their “own research.”
You’re likely the trusted news messenger in your circle, so you may not realize. But for everyone else (who doesn’t have a friend/sister/niece/whatever who is a reporter) there is some trusted messenger who gets them the news. Guess where that trusted messenger gets that news? From you! You’re “the research.”
Remember, more than 30 percent of Americans say they still get their local news directly from news outlets. More than half still turn to local TV news. (These percentages are likely higher since at least some folks who report getting news online are actually getting it from news outlets online.) Why do they do that? Because it turns out, news from a real news outlet still carries some serious weight.
All to say…For many stories, YOU are the origination point. And that really, really matters at a time when our democracy is facing an avalanche of threats.
Next Week…How to help push your stories through the ecosystem.
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Comic Relief
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Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
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