Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Whatever happened to local news?
The latest print issue of Governing magazine has a great article about the reduction in local news. It's a thorough review of a nationwide problem. While the article has some some references to the typical things you'd expect politicans to say about so-called negative and critical reporting, it's clear from the story that even critical reporting is an endangered species nationwide.
I think back to when I started in journalism; I spent entire days sitting in courtrooms studying and writing about how the criminal justice system worked. I can't tell you how many examples of both good and bad justice that I just literally stumbled across. You'd be unlikely to find such a job now. Newspaper readership is dying; in the 90's, the publishers insisted that reader focus groups showed that the only thing people cared about were puppies, proms and proposed parking lots. So something like a pure courts beat is rare these days indeed.
I've said before that your best bet to learn more about this subject is a book called 'The Vanishing Newspaper,' but I don't believe I've posted this a link with a critical reading and review of this valuable book. It takes time to read, but by the end of it all, you'll have a good sense of the state of journalism today.
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I think back to when I started in journalism; I spent entire days sitting in courtrooms studying and writing about how the criminal justice system worked. I can't tell you how many examples of both good and bad justice that I just literally stumbled across. You'd be unlikely to find such a job now. Newspaper readership is dying; in the 90's, the publishers insisted that reader focus groups showed that the only thing people cared about were puppies, proms and proposed parking lots. So something like a pure courts beat is rare these days indeed.
I've said before that your best bet to learn more about this subject is a book called 'The Vanishing Newspaper,' but I don't believe I've posted this a link with a critical reading and review of this valuable book. It takes time to read, but by the end of it all, you'll have a good sense of the state of journalism today.
