I’ll admit that when I was growing up, I never really cared about the news on TV or the newspaper outside of weather reports, school closures, and the occasional funny clip or cartoon.
Truthfully, that mindset followed me into college and right up until I got my first reporter gig.
With pop culture references that painted news agencies and sources in negative lighting, I had to take everything with a grain of salt until I learned how a real newspaper behaved with integrity.
Once you’re working as part of a media outlet, then you’ve seemingly got a target on your back for naysayers and willfully ignorant people to throw garbage at you.
It’s especially hard since both Mike and I have attended college and dedicated decades to providing the facts of events, meetings, features, and governing body coverage.
Recently, someone told us that they perceived our coverage of local government to be ‘negative.’
And to that, I say that the only negative connotation is what the reader assigns when they read our stories.
Small, independently owned and operated media outlets like ours don’t have the luxury of keeping a corporate lawyer on retainer.
We have to work THAT much harder to get all the facts before putting them out for our readers in the most precise and easily digestible form of content.
Not to mention, with everyone connected via cellphones, tablets, computers, or other internet sources as much as possible, we have to keep up a physical and digital presence.
That’s why we keep our opinions focused on one page or one column only so that our audience has a frame of reference for our feelings and subjective works.
Everything else in the paper has to be factual, truthful, and communicated as clearly as possible.
It’s an unfortunate component of life that has us covering the news that isn’t always sunshine, rainbows, and the glories of coastal living.
While I wish we had more positivity to focus on, there are still things happening that the general public needs more information about.
It’s also part of our job to stamp out gossip and rumors!
A large bit of that is working with entities and officials who don’t believe the public needs the truth or that an incident is insignificant and therefore not worth mentioning.
Or, worse, we get brushed off and ignored when we have a deadline to meet.
Don’t get me started on how some of those in positions of power and influence just keep ‘passing the buck’ instead of being held accountable.
Researching information for stories sometimes leads to bureaucratic red tape and people trying to control the flow of information in order to cast themselves in the best light.
I think overall, the worst part about this job experience is how everyone seems to lump all media outlets together – even the ones privately owned by corporations, political parties, and conspiracies.
We’re not about being that sort of news representation and strive to never fall into that category.
I honestly just don’t understand why anyone wants to keep muddying the waters and instead share the facts of something.
It really seems counterproductive – especially when the truth always comes out eventually.
