Local Newspapers Needed More Than Ever to Bring Communities Together
By Juliette Borenstein
Last year our local butcher shut up shop after more than four decades of service. I know this is not a big story with the year that was – but this feature of our neighborhood disappeared without a trace. In the past the local paper would have done a story – with Damian standing in his white jacket among the wreaths of sausages, talking to the locals.
The lockdowns highlighted the need for reliable sources of local news.
If there has ever been a time when we have missed having a local news source it has been these last months.
Yes, the local papers kept councils honest with their watching brief, giving both sides of the argument. But, more importantly, they provided a sense of community, reminding us about what was happening in our neighborhood in ways that the larger metro dailies, radio and TV news can't.
When we were locked down into our five-kilometer compounds, how good it would have been to have had a weekly newspaper letting us know how our community was going.
The local papers helped to shore up the precious qualities of community, which have been the saving of many of us.
With their loss, we need to find a new way of knitting community together, of providing a platform for local conversations, of celebrating local stories, and of opening up the workings of the council, the level of government which has the most direct day-to-day impact on our lives.
Without a local newspaper there is no forum to find out what the council is doing. - Simon Schluter
I needed a conversation with the council before the new bin turned up and confused the bejesus out of a neighborhood of previously happy recyclers. I want a forum for progressing the issues which are regularly raised with the council, but which seem to go nowhere: about the environment, planning, parking, dog amenity, and the use of shared spaces, and the decline of local shopping strips. I need the critical insight into the council that a local paper used to provide.
Undeniably, lockdown has brought my focus closer to home. I am valuing local history and want to celebrate the character and individuals of our community.
As well as the disappearance of our local butcher, a missed gem recently discovered is the Richmond business which has been in the hands of one family since the Gold Rush. Where is that story told?
Not in a WhatsApp group. The platform of my dreams has journalistic input to curate, investigate and moderate, elements which are missing from the unregulated chat on social media.
After a year when "fake news" and "shouty" views have battled with well-researched facts, I fully appreciate the value of good journalism.
So, this is my hope for this year: to replace the local paper, a new platform to nourish my community, to make sure the stories are told, and the successes are celebrated, and where power, in its most local form is held to account. – The Age
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