Local journalists are sorely needed in small towns. They find corruption in the water department and expose dirty sheriffs. They also report the good news about local schools and road repairs and upcoming festivals. They show up to meetings and report findings for the rest of us.
If you have a bent for a topic that's not getting covered in the local news (not owned by venture capital) write the editor and offer to cover it. It takes real commitment to turn out news week to week ... Volunteering gives you just a small insight. I write the #louisvilleco govt. 4 #boulderweekly
I wish there was someone in my community willing to pay for this, but everyone wants it for free, most especially the journalists' bosses. It's important!
I stopped watching MSNBC, but I watch my local general news and weather! I turn off when the politics is too much about Trump & his lies!
Gotta amend that a little - non-CORPORATE, local journalists are sorely needed in small towns. Folks in small towns should research and find out if their local station or paper is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group or another group horrifically skewed to the right (like Fox but worse).
Local media are sorely needed to employ those local journalists. Most towns don't have them any more. We have a network of 8 fmr papers "serving" 8 counties ranging in pop from 37K-183K, w/all reporters & editors based in the neighboring large city (+2 add'l counties not even in the stated region).
There's an excellent independent statewide news source, but they don't get to the so-needed granular level you mention. One local university has a promising hyper-local journalism project. Beyond that it's just individuals posting reports of varying accuracy and bias, for free or a few local ads.
What is starting to gain traction is framed as civic engagement, not journalism - an "observer corps" led by the local League of Women Voters. All volunteer, and obv many more volunteers needed esp for day-long meetings of County Commissioners etc.
I've noticed that. It may be how we restore news reporting. But if so, LWV should organize itself at every level to coordinate and promote host websites as that independent nonprofit. Reporting is more than observing though. It's backgrounding, interviewing and hours/days/months digging in archives.
Be on alert. In recent months, some corporate owners have started using AI, including creation of a fictional journalist, made-up bio and all with the byline. Try to meet the reporter in person, to be sure they exist and have a legit journalism degree.
Very good point. The one reporter assigned to my county, I've only spoken with him on the phone, but his story that included the interview was fair and competently written, and I'm satisfied he's legit. But I don't really doubt LinkedIn is full of AI generated profiles at this point :-/
Found it: patch.com/new-jersey/h... A fake byline "includes a claim that one reporter had a master's degree in education policy from Columbia University, a claim called into question by a spokesperson for the graduate Teacher's College."
... and that AI fictional byline in the local paper gets its "facts" by plagiarizing real reporters (including their exclusive direct quotations) and grabbing as equal QAnon-style disinformation -- anything AI finds posted online. AI can't phone to validate real vs fake stuff it is plagiarizing.
best thing you can do is unplug and actually get involved in your town, your local politics, a cause you personally believe in. going fully into the comfort zones of digital save havens while unplugging from the real place you live and breath in is giving up.
💯 The majority of my 2024 election work was raising awareness about our local school board candidates. In spite of that, 33% of the voters in my city left their school board vote blank(!) and a right wing Moms For Liberty candidate just got elected.
imo an uncomfortable truth about our current system is that the right wing is much much more tuned into local politics, in large part due to churches being their meeting halls with leadership, structure, and action items to take. Liberals just don’t have a strong equivalent.
Uh no, unplugging is not info sharing. What’s the pt of trying to effect change if we don’t organize with each other? She’s right. You’re right about involvement tho. ❤️❤️❤️
Hey weird question, are you on TikTok, and how many videos do you have on your profile? I think you may have a copycat messaging people.
I am on TikTok. I have about 300,000 followers. I have a lot of folks who pretend to be me on that app.
That's what I figured, people don't usually try to get me to go to a different app...... Can you post your actual TikTok account cuz I'd like to give you a follow on there
Until venture capital buys said outlet and lays everybody off.
It's doesn't have to be that way. It's like people who live in place for 60 years blaming property taxes for not being able to afford to stay. Then sell your house for less than market rate. Get it listed historic. My paper local is going co-op as the owner wants to retire.
Venture capital is less prone to go buying up town newspapers than it is a lot of other things.
👍👍👍👍
You are so, so good at this! 🫂
Local journalist are great. I just don't want to hear any of the BS from the big MSM. They are part of the reason why we are where we're at today.
Agree.
I wish....most journalist are activise for wokeness
Yes they do and small town papers have been in decline for years. If you see a problem, fix a problem. Aggregate local stories on the web for your town. No one is going to do it for you
Support nonprofit local newspapers. inn.org
What a fabulous resource! Thank you. I just found a new source I didn’t know existed. Awesome.
I've not seen anyone say that they'll unplug from all media, just national media. To the contrary, I've seen them highly value the importance of local media. We just need to build those and our online presence up on all platforms, and the sooner the better.
This!!!! ‘School choice’ is a euphemism for: I don’t want my kids sitting in school with black kids, but they’re not allowed to say that anymore.
Anti school choice could be argued to be a euphemism for "I don't want my middle class white kids to have black & Latino kids bussed in to our private school."
No honey that’s ’school choice’ racists
Well no I just explained how it's possibly the opposite. Can you explain why not?
‘School choice’ is what racist ppl call the creation of private schools, by wealthier ppl, to exclude black and brown ppl. It’s not actually ‘choice’ it’s a label the racists use for their proposal/policies.
The purpose of the program is to allow minority kids stuck in public schools to use tax dollars already spent on them / the public school to go to private schools. It's the opposite of excluding them, it's allowing them to afford private education denied them.
Yes and you said ‘anti choice’ was ‘I don’t want them to be in school tigether’ Did you mean the double negative????
I'm saying wealthy white people are trying to keep minorities away from their kids by claiming the very thing which would allow those minorities to attend same classes as their privileged white kids, school choice, is somehow "racist" instead of the status quo which traps minorities in bad schools
As a school board member in Ohio, I can give you numerous examples of Private school voucher students who have been removed by the private schools for a variety of reasons. Those "poor" &/or "minority" families then have to file for bankruptcy so their student can graduate from the public schools.
And yet the public school system is systematically failing students & not merely anecdotally or with a few data points
They say it anyway.
Unfortunately, my local newspaper is a maga rag called the Star News while my big city, "mainstream" LA Times is owned by Soon Shiong, bowed to Dump, and was afraid to endorse Kamala. I guess there's always NPR.