Community Media

Logan Porter and John Owens at the helm of a low-cost livestreaming operation for SPJ Region 2 conference in Roanoke, Va. April, 2022.

The digital revolution has had a gigantic impact on the people who gather and distribute news.  Traditional local and regional newspapers are in sharp decline, according to the Pew Research Center.  Many newspapers have gone bankrupt, and all have become less relevant to daily life.   Today, far fewer people are keeping a public eye on local and state government.

The reason for the decline is fairly straightforward.  Advertising has always been the mainstay of the press.  Since the 1800s, news organizations have earned most of their money from display and classified advertising.

Ad executives used to say that only half of their advertising was effective, but they didn’t know which half.  In the early 21st century,  search engines like Google allowed shoppers to zero in on the best prices, and they also allowed companies like Google to charge marketers for the privilege of coming  up high in the search rankings.   So the Internet made the market more efficient, but it also meant that it was less efficient to advertise in newspapers  and magazines.

Classified advertising also became more or less free through services like Craig’s list.

In light of this, it’s important to recall that advertising isnt the only way that the press used to make money, and it isnt the only approach that can be taken in the 21st century.  Maybe we could take a page from the old community publishing model.

Community publishing used to approach the mission of the press as both a business and a public service.

Typically you’d find:

• A profitable printing services operation that churned out  books, legal notices,  accounting ledgers, minutes of local organizations, wills and deeds and a thousand other essential record-keeping tools for the public and private business; and

• A not-so-profitable newspaper that provided a public service, and also helped the printing operation stand out from its competitors.

At a industrial scale, regional newspapers remained profitable until advertising revenues started to fall around 2006 – 2008. More recently, the old community printing operations also became unprofitable   People use far less paper these  days, and many of our books and notices and record keeping tools have  been converted to digital forms, where publishing is more efficient and less expensive.  So along with advertising revenues,  printing services revenues are also drying up for community publications.

Social media often just present new problems 

In the near-vacuum of community news, we have seen a surge of new media functions, but they often have serious problems.  Facebook moderators have  editing styles that are not informed by a tolerance for open debate or any knowledge of where the actual limits of debate are (or should be) according to US tradition and law. Craigslist has no social responsibility, and using it can be risky. Fake news is endemic at the national level and promoted by interested parties at the local level.

Meanwhile, local news is barely covered, and this can lead to dangerous situations.  For example, not long ago, a city council in a Virginia community heard an engineering report about rust in the pylons (towers) that hold the bright lights over the football field. The engineers were worried the pylons could fall over in a high wind.  But there was no local paper to cover the council meeting.  When the band director and the football coach heard about this in private conversations later that week, they were astonished that news so important to their students’ safety was not reaching them.  This is  the kind of information deficit that we face in the absence of traditional news reporting.

Proposals to fix the traditional media don’t go deep enough

Many proposals for new journalism ventures amount to the “better pilot” model. If we could just have better pilots flying more specific routes, the idea goes, we’d have more people paying for piloting services.  Often these new ventures are non-profit enterprises that have no real hope for financial success other than short-term foundation grants.

We need to envision not only new kinds of pilots and airplanes, but also an entirely different approach to aircraft design. We need new kinds of  community hangers which not only encourage new pilots, but also new ways to think about what it means to fly, and what airframes and engines and new theories can help us achieve more.

Media services could replace advertising revenues 

Let’s start with the self-evident proposition that every community has information needs, whether its just the humble bulletin board at the local library or the most elaborate community press organizations, or a variety of function in between.

In recent decades, community information needs have broadened, and some of these are already being served by commercial media services operations — for example Flickos for video digitization and Lumoid for media equipment rentals.  These are “long tail” services that don’t specifically target local political, environmental and social information needs, so they only show the commercial potential, rather than the potential for service.

Media services non-profits or coops could provide a new kind of revenue or volunteer structure. Some of the projects a non-profit could take on include:

  • Volunteer video production unit for meetings, school events, sports and other community needs with full high quality switching and live streaming;
  • Video and photographic equipment rentals for weekend specials or family event specials
  • VHS and digital tape to digital transfer, for family heritage videos, as in the Flicko’s business model.
  • A photocopying / scanning operations for printing, document handling and family album reproductions and heritage scrapbooking.
  • Thermal imaging equipment for home and business energy audits;

Additional low-cost services that could be delivered by trained volunteers include:

  • Elderly podcasting support for free audio books, in connection with library and with Librivox.org; This is especially important public service outreach for nursing homes and vision impaired.
  • Teen’s educational animation software & studio space (eg Dragonframe or other animation application);
  • Time-lapse photography, ground penetrating radar, drone video, and other advanced digital imaging services.
  • Computer video editing rentals, for the shop, with training, or for experienced users, to take home.
  • Teen video gaming contests and parental training for video game participation;
  • Small business marketing and web design consulting and support that empowers the small business owner;
  • Individual, family and community:  Book publishing assistance and local market pooling for low-cost online books and books-on-demand.
  • Assistance with community blogging for additional information outreach from religious, agricultural, small business development and other local civic improvement groups

Community news and public agenda setting would be one of the centerpieces of this new organization.  It could (and should) be a democratic news environment, where readers and viewers would not only vote for the most important stories and set the agenda, but would also have a voice in the way information is developed in the first place.

In this instance, members of the community would know in advance about topics coming up in the news and would have an opportunity to comment or contribute.  Similarly, if a critical mass of readers wanted a reporter to look into a public situation and report back, the readers should be able to initiate reporting efforts. At the same time, professional and citizen reporters could propose and bid on these kinds of projects.   So a transparent and public agenda setting function would be a healthy way to approach public issues.

Overall, we can move in the direction of MORE, rather than less, democracy in our information systems, especially if we act collectively.   We can face the technological revolution fearlessly, and make the best of it, rather than allow it to make the worst of us.

As Henry David Thoreau said in Walden, over 150 years ago:     “Why should we leave it to Harper & Brothers … to select our reading? As the nobleman of cultivated taste surrounds himself with whatever conduces to his culture, genius, learning, [or] wit … so let the village. Do not stop short at a pedagogue, a parson, a sexton, a parish library, and three selectmen, because our Pilgrim forefathers got through a cold winter once on a bleak rock with these. To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions …”

Problems with the media services model 

The media services model is  a decentralized structure that depends on volunteer community participation.  The professionals are organizers and trainers, and the writers and videographers are the volunteers.

Most businesses would welcome  a high level of community interest. However, the news business has for many decades been a “cloistered” profession and its  expert practitioners have long been trained to shun rather than embrace community experiences and participation.

Questioned about an approach or underlying theory in the way a story is covered, journalists often react with the phrase: “The story stands by itself.” In other words, no explanation should be needed.  This is contrary to the SPJ Code of Ethics, which says that journalists must be accountable to the public.  To be sure,  it is understandable given that professional reporters and editors have little time for lengthy debate or discussion if they are going to get any work done. Anyone who has been in that position knows the pressure from partisans and politicians who engage in constant debate about their agendas, hoping to push reporting to the left or right.

In addition, there are some legal reasons why journalists should not disclose their motives when covering a controversial story;  any explanation can become the basis for cross examination in a libel suit.

These traditional media procedures contrast with the need for transparency in a community media system. Part of the problem may be addressed by a sort 0f record-building, rather like the”revision history” behind a controversial Wikipedia page.

Another problem is that volunteer writers need training  in community service journalism and the parameters of fair comment & criticism.  One response would be to decentralize the responsibility for commentary.  Another might be to provide training in basic media law and ethics, with some privileges attached to training badges.