Local News
Listening to the Local news story as well as Emily Brown has ignignted something that I wasn’t expect; I have a heart for community (local) reporting.
When I thought of journalism, my first thoughts were the New York Times, Washington Post and pretty much any other “big” newspaper. When I pictured myself working in the journalism industry, I always saw myself working up to one of these major league papers. This was my definition of “making it”.
In an essence, that’s not an entirely wrong mindset. If your goal as journalist is to work for a major news outlet, that is reputable and known, then those news rooms are where you should be working towards. However, I noticed this semester my desires have changed and therefore my perception of valuable journalism has changed.
As I’v been narrowing down what I enjoy to write about I realized its more than “opinions”. I do love my job as opinion editor, but that’s only half of the job I want. I want to reflect my communities opinions, not just my own.
I started an internal reflection — what is it I truly like want to write about? Politics is very important to me, but how do I narrow this down? Then, whil Emily Brown was talking in class, it hit me.
She emphasized this idea that in community reporting — local reporting — you must be people focused. You have to connect with people and allow them to talk about themselves. When I thought about this in application to my future, I knew I wanted to work in my small suburb of Houston, I just didn’t know if what I wrote about would truly matter.
Journalism is more than statistics and projections, it reflects hearts and minds of individuals around us if we are willing to shed the light on their ideas and concerns.
I have a heart for the Veteran community. Houston is home to the second largest Veteran population is the United States with over 250,00 veterans. My passion quite literally line’s up with my community. Through my reporting, I can shed a light on this community and what they are going through, while simultaneously creating my own opinions on what can be done for this community.
However, just as it is pointed out through Kristin with Poynter Institute, news rooms are shrinking and layoffs in local communities are inevitable. The Houston Chronicale gets more attention than Spring happening does, and that’s just reality. However, I believe organizations could work with each other more than they currently are.
One step is showing that organizations like Houston Chronicle and Spring Happenings do not have to be enemies. They can work off of each other. They both have strengths and weaknesses that can better each other.
Furthermore, I believe these local newsrooms should see if the information they release truly reflects the community they are representiving. In Houston specifically, the community is passionate about racial injustice, homeless, education and veterans. They are not very passionate about topics like Climate Change and women's rights.
I am still balancing how this looks in application and I still have achievements like Law school that I want to accomplish, but it is comforting to know my passions and my community line up. I may not be the next big time journalist with the New York Times, but I may change the dialogue about Veterans in my community. For me, that’s just as fulfilling.
As Emily Brown pointed out, people care about other people. But someone needs to be there to report on it. Someone needs to answer the call to local journalism, because it has a place in Journalism. It is needed in Journalism.
