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9.2: Create a community news platform

  • Page ID
    294887
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    In South Africa and many other countries, local news is very important. People would like to know about what is going on in the area where they live. Why does the power keep going out? Why are the potholes not being fixed? What are the local politicians doing to build a school for all the children who need to drive to a neighbouring town to go to secondary school? Who won the club cricket match? In many cases, larger mass media outlets do not cover local news anymore. As discussed in this textbook, because of the downscaling of newsrooms for several reasons, there are fewer journalists available to cover all the news in smaller towns. This creates a an opportunity for local journalism entrepreneurs to fill the gap.

    Community journalism is very important because community journalists encourage public debate within the community about important issues, they encourage economic growth, and they help cultivate a sense of geographic community (SCJ, 2021). Local news also brings people together and encourages political participation (Abernathy, 2019).

    It is easy to build a simple website (for example, using Wordpress.org or Wordpress.com), and it is also easy to create a simple print publication that can be distributed by hand to houses in the area. There are free and very good online layout programs available to design your own newspaper (such as Scribus). You can earn an income by getting advertisements from local businesses; often, they will be willing to advertise in a local newspaper because the audience that your paper or website will reach are all right there where the businesses are. Advertising rates are also less expensive in smaller publications. You can even purchase a small printer to print your newsletter yourself, or use local printing companies that might be less expensive.

    A model that has become popular in the US is one where local government (municipalities) help fund local news because they realise the value and importance of covering news that matter to the community. In New York City, in 2019, the mayor, Bill de Blasio, signed a directive that more than half the city’s budget for advertising in print and online should be spent at small, independent community newspapers and websites. This provided a steady and reliable stream of income to these community news outlets (Bartlett & Sandorf, 2021). There are initiatives underway to promote similar programmes elsewhere in the US. You could try to approach your local municipality and find out if there are similar possibilities in your area.

    There have always been many small, independent newspapers in South Africa, who are members of the Association of Independent Publishers. Some of these papers or websites (some publish only online) are run by just one or two people, and they are distributed in areas of the country where no other news media (except, sometimes, public radio and TV) reach. Many of these newspapers rely on funding from government advertising, which has its downsides. In some cases, this leads to under-reporting of corruption or bad governance, because some of the news outlets do not want to antagonise government. There is a need to think of different funding models, perhaps sponsorships or grants, to make sure that these papers survive and that others will get off the ground. Printing is relatively expensive but publishing local news online can be done much more inexpensively. These independent, local newspapers who have been in business for many decades show there is a demand for local news.

    There will always be a need for independent media – smaller organisations that do not speak to only a certain constituency, usually wealthier readers who pay for advertising and subscriptions (Bernardo, 2019). Independent media are outlets for different voices, allowing people who are not usually represented in the media to also have a say (Bernardo, 2019).

    A good place to start, if you are considering launching a local news website, is to keep your eyes open for international media organisations that often advertise grants or projects to encourage the creation of independent media outlets in developing countries. Wits University in Johannesburg has a journalism incubator programme called Jam Lab which helps start-up journalists with training and funding opportunities.


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