HAPPY NEW YEARThreatening and isolating, or a chance for community solidarity? Local media can make a big difference to our shared experience. The January snows have demonstrated yet again the essential role quality local news services play in the community. Which buses and trains are running, what is the access like to local hospitals, which roads are blocked, which schools are open? When the County Council website crashed from the weight of traffic, parents could still turn to the BBC Oxford website for a full round up of affected schools, colleges and nurseries, or tune in to Heart FM or Radio Oxford, whose presenters trawled heroically through the list of more than 400 closed establishments. Banbury Sound and other local radio stations around the regions will have been performing a similar service in their own areas.
A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
But while the information and advice was essential, equally valuable was the way in which local media helped transform a situation that can seem isolating and threatening into a real community experience in which people are able to share quirky stories of frustration and fun. In East Challow much of the village was out on the main street trying to push abandoned cars out of the way of a stuck Tesco’s lorry. Near Deddington, in the north of the county, a headmaster and his son rang in to the local radio to brag about their ancient Skoda having come to the rescue of an RAC van that was stuck in the gutter.
LOCAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Then there are the serious stories about how those responsible for keeping our roads open and our public transport running responded to the situation. Have they learnt from past lessons? Should they have done better? Who would hold these people to account if not local news services with the professionalism and experience to get their stories right, to present a fair and informed picture, and to follow the stories up so that shortcomings don’t just get repeated the next time the snow falls?
The immediate question for the branch however is how we ensure we still have a diversity of quality local broadcast, print and online news services the next time the snow falls, given that we’ve already lost Central News South, the BBC licence is under threat from multiple directions and some of our local news rooms have shrunk to the point where they are operating on a skeleton staff.
The answer lies in ensuring the communities we serve recognise both the value of local news services and the threat they face - something the Oxford branch has been addressing for three years now, with its local news and stand up for journalism campaigns.
WHO WILL CHAMPION LOCAL NEWS?
We hope to build on this work in the new year by writing to all our country, district and town/city councillors on behalf of all the local newsgatherers who came together at the end of last year, asking for them to champion the cause of diverse and well-resourced local news services by helping establish policy within these councils and other influential and representative bodies.
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE
This will help ensure that the communities we serve have a voice in the changes that are to come, and that we can minimise the threats these changes may pose for our members working in local media and maximise the opportunities changes may offer for extending skills and expertise in this digital age.
AW 2010-01-01
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