The big journalism void: ‘The real crisis is not technological, it’s geographic’

The Guardian often takes a look at America in a way that American new organizations sometimes overlook.

Maybe it’s the fresh perspective of an outsider looking in? Maybe the ethics and values instilled in their reporters see us in a way that we cannot see ourselves? I’m not sure, but The Guardian’s coverage year after year piques my interest unlike many other newspapers can.

Whether it’s a startling look at gun deaths in the U.S. Or an amusing, if not somewhat disturbing view of our politics of elections; this recent story zooms in on a crisis many have addressed before and it, again, raises the spectré of what we are missing when our local newspapers die or simply fail to do the job they are supposed to: covering local events and creating a history of our condition that truly boils down to the average citizen and what is important in their day-to-day world.

I’ve covered my fair share of city budget hearings, zoning hearing, police blotters and car wrecks, but these seemingly mundane events are a critical recording of our world. Want to know how much rain fell in 1936? Check the local paper. Want to know when a certain street was built or what building stood on a vacant lot? You guessed it, check the local paper.

National outlets are not going to record the minutia of small or mid-size America. Only the local paper will ever do that.

I grew up in a household where my parents read the local paper everyday and watched the CBS national news with Walter Cronkite and followed by watching the local news for the weather report while we all ate dinner at the kitchen table. It was routine. It was habit – one I still follow today with my own children as time permits with our busier than ever schedule of Boy Scouts, high school band and cooking dinner and work that never seems to stay at the workplace.

In all, we need to remember what we think is important and should be important. If your local paper sucks, it not just the paper’s fault – it’s our fault too for not holding them to higher standards and telling them to do a better job.