In the better-late-than-never department, here's the link to that article I mentioned that I wrote for American Journalism Review about journalists, and the difficulties in connecting to the communities where they work and the people that they're writing about. In one of a number of cases of bad timing this summer, it went online as soon as left to go away on vacation, so a few of you have already seen it.
Here's an excerpt:
Most agree that successful newspapers need a highly local focus that is more in touch with, and more responsive to, the community, with a running dialogue – in cyberspace and in person – between journalists and citizens. But with all that's been written and said about the newspaper crisis of the 21st century, almost no one ever talks about one huge paradox: The actual journalists now asked to produce this new brand of hyperlocal coverage are often remarkably ill-prepared to do so. In many newsrooms – but especially in the larger metro newspapers that are suffering the biggest drops in circulation and ad revenue – there is a gaping divide between overworked, career-conscious reporters and the communities they cover.
This community gap is familiar to most reporters and editors, and its roots are deep and complicated. For many, it starts with the geographically circuitous career path for journalists hungry for the most prestigious jobs with the best pay – a system that sends citizens of Red Sox Nation into Manhattan newsrooms even as native Yankees fans take root in Philly. Once there, reporters work long hours, and when they do socialize, it's usually with other journalists or a narrow swath of sources from politics or law enforcement.
In case you were wondering, I do confess to my many own failings in this area, so I did the commenters' work for them already. One thing that became increasingly clear to me is that community-based journalism -- in small towns, individual suburbs or even urban neighborhoods -- is hanging in there and filling a need for people while the big-city metros like the ones here in Philly struggle. I've come to see that this is the biggest issue for newspapers and newspaper people going forward, because there are thousands of journalists trained for, and interested in doing, the type of work that there's exactly the least demand for.
