Local News Blog Post
Referring to the Pew Research study article, I was honestly very surprised to see that TV news is still more popular than online news. My initial thought was that everyone prefers to find their local news online because it’s more convenient and they can look it up whenever they want.
According to that article, 41% of people prefer TV news and 37% prefer online news. Even as the preference for online news is close and continues to creep up on TV news, local television stations retain a strong hold in the local news ecosystem.
I’m not surprised that print news has a very low percentage. With the world advancing in technology everyday, people have no choice but to get accustomed to it. Honestly, the only people I can think of who still enjoy reading their news in the newspaper would be my grandparents.
With the pandemic now taking over, it was interesting to hear Emily Brown talk about how Covid-19 affects journalism today. As a journalist, you want to be on the scene getting the best inspiration possible for what you’re going to write. However with Covid, that doesn’t happen as often anymore unfortunately.
I also thought it was interesting how she knew right away that she wanted to pursue journalism. Having that creative passion to want to write stories and inform people with current events is something I can relate to.
Local news is very important and super beneficial to everyone whether people think so or not. According to the journalism conference, 95% of people rely on their local news for their daily lives.
The topics that people rely on to stay updated constantly is traffic and the weather. Without having those, people wouldn’t be able to plan their lives accordingly.
Living in a pandemic especially, we need to know what’s happening where at all times so we can stay socially distanced for as long as possible. We also rely on our local news because they tell us if someone with Covid has visited somewhere. With that information, we now know to avoid that place and area for quite a few weeks.
Communities are full of fascinating stories that are waiting to be shared. The perfect way to make that happen is by connecting communities to a local media organization. Not only do media organizations share stories but they also bring people together who may share a common interest.