In 2024, the core of your local news strategy boils down to the question: “Does location matter?”
What are the most exciting and promising new local journalism organizations? The answer to that question, deep down, is: yes. To do that, we need a way of doing journalism that is very different from, and in my opinion more challenging than, a national organization that is interested in the “local.” Real local journalism news outlets already know this. And as so many new and needed locally focused news organizations are springing up across the country, these journalists and newsroom leaders are redefining their relationships. An exciting new space is on the horizon.
I believe this creates an opportunity for new local journalists to work with local residents and historical, cultural and social groups to collaboratively reimagine new ways of doing local history. , Under investigationand got engaged.
I’ve been arguing for some time that journalists must use history as a reporting tool. (This fall, I also became a part-time student working on my master’s degree in public history.) And I want journalism to work more with public libraries and humanities-focused organizations in general. I agree with some wise colleagues who would benefit from this. But in 2024 he will Increase investment in local news In particular, and Focus on people of colorwith a new generation of locals. citizen media accept a new role as placemaker themselves.The history they tell as they do so, the way they communicate. place — will be very different from its predecessor.
Researcher Nikki Asher writes in her book: News for the rich, white, and young., journalists have long been place-making agents. But with the decline of local newspapers and the nationalization of news, Asher warns that “journalists are losing their authoritative claim to being able to report on the ground.”
This is somewhat alarming. When we lose our sense of place, we risk losing our ability to understand how power shapes our lives and what we can do about it. On the other hand, the sense of history and place that legacy media conveyed was incomplete at best. By misrepresenting or ignoring communities of color, “traditional” newsrooms have often been complicit in the misrepresentation and erasure of their histories. If journalism is indeed the first draft of history, then the legacy of overwhelming whiteness in newsrooms speaks to how much history needs to be reexamined.
A new local newsroom could also be part of that review. Because they create their own histories in relation to the communities they serve, they are well suited to change the way history is told. In doing so, they become their own unique placemakers. This is particularly exciting because new news organizations and movement journalists clearly have no interest in recreating the traditional power roles of newsrooms of the past.they are not very interested claim more authoritative and more interesting share that. That is the hallmark of new journalism, and that is exactly what makes effective public history.
Publication history It is the practice of dealing with history within and with the public (i.e., outside of academia). As I wrote on Substack, Public history + journalism, Some journalists may have done a little public history without realizing it. public historians, a wide range of people including: community archivist, oral historianfield and museum interpretation; Librarians and digital humanities experts, local researchers and moremay have experience in journalism as well.
I believe that the fields of public history and journalism are moving toward each other. In 2024, if local news and citizen media leaders are proactive about that change, they will find a new public to serve and a new generation of public historians waiting for them.
Logan Jeff He is a newsletter reporter for ProPublica and a graduate student in public history at Loyola University Chicago.