Brief reflections on the small-town paper

For most of the residents of Homer, Alaska, the Homer News is the primary source of both local and international news. The town has only between 4,000 and 5,000 residents -- and while the small newspaper does include several international pages, they are flat -- ripped straight from the AP and without the intricate details and surprisingly sharp writing you find in the descriptions of the every-day man of Homer. But I have to wonder how much of of this is the result of the economy -- fewer reporting jobs in places like tiny Homer have, as we've discussed, forced many newsrooms to run more syndicated content from newswires to fill their pages. But, taking Homer as one example, this is a monumental loss because of the loss of the individual voice of the paper that goes with it. Comparing an edition of the Homer News from 5 years ago to one from today, the local content is less varied, fewer bylines can be found, and the international stories are rarely written from a local point of view. The latter is tragic if we consider one definition of the journalist that we have discussed in class: he/she who creates a lens on an issue, magnifies it, and makes it relevant by drawing connections for the reader.

With the loss of staff and the smaller budgets (in EVERY town, not just in Homer), comes a loss in the creation of that lens. A general AP story about the BP oil spill will not have the same resonance as one that carefully draws parallels between the current situation and oil spills in the past that have so deeply affected small fishing communities in Alaska and elsewhere. Ultimately, my fear is that while everyone is worried about the loss of the credible newspaper in the age of the everyman blog, I am worried too about the loss the intelligent local voice that knows how to make an enormous, impersonal issue smaller -- just enough to resonate with residents of places like Homer, AK.