Health & Fitness
NEWS HAPPENS! In Praise Of Hyper-Local Media
Has mainstream media unwittingly bought into the age-old, ancient Roman practice of bread and circuses? The role of media is to inform and educate, but sadly this duty may be slipping.
There was an era in America, where to be well informed on all that happened, one only had to walk out to their driveway each morning and retrieve the morning paper. To those wanting an additional fix for news, there were evening papers.
Sadly, those days of bucolic simplicity are long gone. Now news never sleeps, and neither should the media machine.
Unfortunately, more and more of what we see from major media is an endless repeating cycle of news. Much of which may not really matter as much as some think it should.
Find out what's happening in North Baltimorewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Sports and entertainment have become the dominant feature of nearly every news outlet. Critical issues are repeatedly rendered to being buried somewhere deep within a news website.
No more do we get daily hard hitting headlines, prominently splashed across the front page. We've grown used to and content to see a football score as front page news. A man dying a senseless death, not so much. We'd rather not know.
Find out what's happening in North Baltimorewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In deference to those of us who still like our news hard and straight, the media will obligingly produce a story, but do everything in their power to minimize it's impact and placement. Other than the day a crucial local story breaks, if you want to find it later, good luck. Site layout and story positioning certainly doesn't make it easy.
The short video accompanying this story chronicles an interesting part of my morning. To be honest, already behind on so much work, I had no plans today to write. Two articles and a short video later, all on the same subject, I find the muse inside me is a relentless taskmaster and she won't let me stop.
My original piece on this was first published at my virtual media headquarters, The Baltimore Spectator. While sites such as Patch, and my own are here to serve the public with relevant news and information. With our fractional budgets and nearly nonexistent staff, there's only so much we can do.
For a person intent on being truly well informed of things that matter, the best advice that can be given, is the same that you'd give to a student performing research. Advice which is a cardinal key to good journalism. Check multiple sources.