Augustana Observer

Augustana Observer

Augustana Observer

The importance of local newspapers

CNN. New York Times. Chicago Tribune. These big newspaper organizations have been busy trying to get the most update news on stories such as the Mizzou student protests and the tragedy in Paris.
But what about the unsung heroes of the news world? They are the local newspapers where the incidents have occurred.
These hometown newspapers have been the backbone of many of these stories, providing in-depth information that national news organizations such as CNN harness to find the facts.
One of my ex-internship coworkers, Katie Kull, who works at a newspaper at Missouri University sent in a Letter to the Editor for the newspaper we both interned for about her frustrations and her thoughts on why local journalism is important.
During the Mizzou protests, her newspaper was working to provide as much news to the Mizzou students as they could. As national newspapers came in to get some quotes and information on the situation, the whole ordeal left her very frustrated.
“Our staff started reading stories from national news organizations – some of the larger papers left out key events from the months leading up to Wolfe’s resignation; others misidentified officials’ titles. Very few got it 100 percent correct,” Kull wrote.
Local newspapers may not cater to the national news, but they are great for on the ground coverage as they know the area and the people fairly well.
Local newspapers are diligent to make sure that every piece of information is correct because they care about their communities and don’t have the luxury of having misleading information and corrections on their papers.
Here at Augustana, although our paper is a weekly one, we try to provide the Augustana community with the truth, the most prevalent and impactful stories, and a sense of community.
We try to get the facts right because we care about our community here at Augustana and seek to provide our readers with our best works.
Local newspapers such as our try to get the facts right and provide more in-depth information than larger news conglomerates because they care on presenting news as fast as possible and miss or leave out important facts when they create their articles.
While it’s great to have larger news stations being able to release information in a market that demands instant updates and news, we have to remember that a lot of their work couldn’t be done if not for the local news stations that serve their communities and serve as the foundations for many of the important breaking news stories.

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The importance of local newspapers