It’s usually pretty easy to figure out an opinion on a lot of national politics, but have you ever been to a local government meeting like city council or county commission? I’m willing to bet the answer is ‘no’ unless it was something for school or you were fighting some local bureaucratic bologna.
But in all honesty, who even has time to follow city hall and what type of controversial stuff can they really be doing? Why talk about the local school board when some other school board is doing something salacious? Local politics may seem like a boring affair compared to the excitement of cable news or even the bizarre antics at the state level, but that’s rarely the case.
When I first decided to pursue journalism in 2009, I knew I’d have to pay my dues. After all, how could I expect to cover international affairs if I couldn’t navigate a city council meeting? After two years of trying to learn the ropes at my local community college, I shifted gears and started covering city council meetings in my rural Alabama town on a free blog.
My first paying job in 2013 was two towns over with a significantly larger population at a radio station with a significantly larger reach than my rinky-dink Blogspot website. I thought I was well on my way to becoming some acclaimed national reporter.
Somewhere along the line, however, I realized I wanted to stick with local news. News deserts were something I only read about until I moved to Oklahoma, where some city halls go years without a reporter stepping through the doors.
The industry of local news as we know it is dead, and I’ve reluctantly come to terms with that. Owners and publishers can’t seem to figure out what the public wants or needs, and mass media educators continue to churn out yesterday’s reporters.
Meanwhile, consumers seem to expect top-level investigative reporting from local journalists who barely have time to develop deep sources because they’re busy filling their daily deadlines with rushed packages tipped off from press releases.
Based on all the “you should look into this” calls I’ve gotten from friends, family, neighbors, readers and listeners over the years, I don’t think people need some hard-hitting investigative reporter to root out corruption. We all just need some good old-fashioned watchdog journalism that keeps people engaged.
That’s where your run-of-the-mill beat reporter comes in to learn the ins and outs of city hall, school boards, courts, and other facets of local government. They’re the people at every meeting, even when members aren’t, recording every boring detail allowed by open meetings laws and the FIrst Amendment right to a free press.
For me personally, those periodical meetings are boring 75% of the time, enlightening or informative 10% of the time, utterly confusing 10% of the time, and exciting the remaining 5% of the time.
But more than a local reporter at the meetings, we need editors, news directors and publishers laying out opinions on these local matters. A healthy press can inform a healthy conversation, whether on the opinion page of the local paper or on the airwaves of a local talk radio station.
Until then, at least I have a blog.