By Margo Smit
A real newspaper has the word “daily” in its name somewhere. So it was very real when, in 1989, after a year of studying journalism at Stanford University, I was allowed to intern as a Dutch gal at The Daily News, owned by an area newspaper family in Longview, Washington. I wrote about the Netherlands and its ties to America. But the fact that they also assigned me to cover the City Council meeting was special to me. What trust they had! That I came back from there with a perfectly readable story was something the editors thought was special.
There is no better place to learn the trade than local media. You live with your “subject,” you understand what is on your audience’s mind. What happens on the big stage has consequences in your own street. If you don’t treat someone correctly and fairly in your story (something that is now obviously close to my heart as an ombudsman), that maligned reader or viewer will literally show up on your doorstep.
It is therefore bad for the profession that local and regional media are rapidly disappearing. In America, where two and a half newspapers are closing every week, 2,900 of them since 2005. In the Netherlands, where most regional newspapers have been gobbled up by Belgian conglomerates and where they are valiantly trying to stay more than a paper in name only. Local websites and radio volunteers are not going to fill the information gap.
But above all, it is a loss for democracy and society at large. City Councils are not remotely being monitored everywhere anymore, even if only by a foreign intern in the public gallery, although what goes awry on a small scale may very well also translate nationwide. Research shows that those who feel informed are less dupable or suspicious in life. So here’s to local media. Please subscribe!
By the way: The Daily News still exists. It has been taken over by a national media company. But anything is better than no Daily News at all.
* Margo Smit is ombudsman at Dutch public TV. Previously, she worked internationally as an investigative journalist. She received her journalism training in the United States.
