Last night I finished up my reading for my graduate school class (well, at least for the week.). The topic this week? Economics and shrinking of newsrooms. Well boy howdy. Like I need to read a damned book to understand this topic.
But the articles were good and helped me understand somethings I experienced first hand. The bottom line is this though, good journalism must survive the economic upheaval of the newspaper industry. There are researched negative effects when local journalism fades away — people become more infatuated about national issues and not as informed on what is going on locally. That has effects on voting. And frankly, on governance. If I were a politician (which will never happen), I would cheer the demise of the local press.
Now, before you get on here and start giving me talking points you heard on TV and radio about how evil the media is (of course you’d be missing the irony that the media told you the media is evil but I digress), I am talking about local journalism. You know, the boring stories about oh, your kids’ education, the roads you drive on, the chances your kids will be able to get jobs here or even “will I get a water bill this month?”
The model of funding journalism is changing daily. I am grateful that I am at Mississippi Today, where we have really bright and talented writers who are determined to bring you stories that you need to know.
I have to write a paper based on the reading. With 22 years of experience of the change in my profession, it shouldn’t be that hard. But as I read it, I felt like I was going to vomit. Maybe it is PTSD. Who knows.