Obra impresa

Community journalism, is a ‘local first’ style of journalism as opposed to being a movement (Lauterer, 2000). Lauterer sees it as providing local coverage, with international and national stories covered by finding the significant local angle. Community newspapers:

embrace their civic role by recognizing their public mandate to promote the general welfare of the community. The finest community newspapers recognize and accept this veritable covenant with their towns: that they are key stakeholders and players in the forces that help build and celebrate their communities. (Lauterer, 1995, p. 5)

Community journalism represents the in-depth focus ‘of a community beat covered with relatively traditional reporting methods, rather than a label for what claims to be a new type of journalism’ (Archer, 1996, p. 5). Archer quotes an editor who saw more value in keeping up with her bowling league than in attending town hall meetings as a way to keep up with the issues important to the community. In discussions while bowling the editor found little interest in calamities, or scandals of business or government. Rather, she found people wanting to know about changing school boundaries, and new constructions of parks and roads. She concluded that the ‘readers more and more want you at their level’ (p. 5).

Lauterer (2000) cites Stiff (1996) who holds that in the best cases, the conscientious community newspaper naturally practices tenets of civic or public journalism, with some people feeling that the best community newspapers have been doing civic/public journalism for years at the grass-roots level without the fanfare. Community journalism is civic journalism in its original, natural, grass-roots state (Lauterer, 2000, p. 6).

2(b)

Issues and how they are presented

Australian studies

A major body of literature exploring issues reported within the independent and alternative press in Australia touches on the role and function of community media within the public sphere (Forde, 1998, 1999). Forde (1999) defines an alternate or independent newspaper as

one which provides a new and clear alternative to mainstream journalism; it covers general news, and political issues; it is not owned [by] or affiliated to a major chain, and it is not the official publication of a major political party. (1999, p. 63)

Considering journalistic practices, news values, freedom of the press and objectivity in the Australian independent and alternative press, Forde (1999) asks, ‘what makes the independent press different from the mainstream?’ She concludes that the independent press appears to be practicing far more successfully than their mainstream counterparts the notion of public journalism, discussed in the preceding section. Independent and alternative press editorial structures lead to a more cooperative flow of copy, and a relaxed rather than a structured process. This affects the way issues are presented. Formal structured newsrooms are in the minority. Forde (1999) gives the reasons for the differences as being a general commitment of the independent press organisations to run democratically, as well as the

need for staff involved in the production to undertake a range of tasks associated with its publication.

Describing the presentation of issues and content by small local papers as coming from proprietors that are ‘unashamedly’ parochial, O’Connor (1998) sees that the way issues are presented paint the future as rosy:

with their mix of news, community notices and lifestyle articles, the local newspapers are an emerging new force in newspaper publishing. (p. 4)

Forde suggests that the alternative press has long been considered an illegitimate form of journalism because of its failure to adhere to conventional journalistic norms of objectivity. Forde (1999) cites Glessing’s (1970) findings that subjectivity was adopted instead of objectivity in the ‘underground’ press of the 1960s. The importance of alternative journalists being involved with their subjects and issues is seen as a strength, rather than being a negative (Glessing, 1970, as cited in Forde, 1999, p. 61).

O’Connor (1998) suggests that the small local papers are ‘beating the big publishers at their own game’: He argues that, in spite of the advent of the age of radio and television, it is because of the ability of the proprietors to gauge the mood and pulse of public opinion or ‘notice the subtle warp and weft of town life’ (p. 5). O’Connor concludes that in recent times computers have caused the small newspaper to reappear, often in small towns where there were formerly no papers. The computer is allowing ‘a breed of computer literate, civic minded or romantics, hard edged business people or city refugees to publish and thrive’ (p. 5). The link between Information Technology (IT) use and small town renewal discussed in relation to Research Question 1 (Kenyon, 1999; Balatti & Falk, 2000; Kenyon & Black, 2001) is a key element linking the community newspaper to community growth and development.

Cryle and Cosgrove suggest that readers were more likely to identify community members in local newspapers than in metropolitan publications, and that readers were more likely to be employed as columnists by local newspapers (Fitzgerald, 1997, as cited in Cryle & Cosgrove, 1999). Families as well as community used the local paper as a shared item; a medium of conversation and consumption. Subscribers and readers were not averse to ‘proofreading errors of fact (Worthington, 1997, as cited in Cryle & Cosgrove). The local and oral knowledge, while not necessarily accurate, provided readers with a filter and a measure of scepticism.

Cafarella (2001) compares a number of differences in daily and community/rural suburban journalism with which reporters should be acquainted. For example, newsmakers in daily papers are usually media savvy, e.g. politicians, businessmen; within suburban papers this is not so. Daily papers tend to report politics and views of decision makers and their effects on the decision makers; suburban newspapers report effects of government policies on ordinary people. Local council is the principal governing body and source of news for suburban newspapers. Greater depth of knowledge of the local council structure, rate systems, and how to read council reports is necessary. Local press and its business community have a symbiotic relationship that involves journalists in not only feature writing but also the writing of advertising copy. Finally, suburban papers have fewer staff to cover broader tasks and take on greater responsibility earlier in their careers than do those on daily newspapers.

Contrasting community and metropolitan papers, Kirkpatrick (2001) suggests that it would be very difficult for a suburban newspaper to achieve the community cohesion found in community papers. Community newspapers emit the message that the everyday life of the community is of interest and value. In many instances:

The community newspaper is communicating the good news that nothing terrible has happened in the past week, whereas the metropolitan daily has communicated all the bad news about corruption in high places…the falling Australian dollar and a sports team taking bribes (p. 20).

This perspective within community newspapers identifies and links back to the reporting of ‘good news’ and how positive news contributes to building community cohesion, discussed in the previous section.

Vines (2001) considers that issues in country journalism are also very different from those arising in metropolitan journalism. She based her study on the first survey of Australian country journalists and found that rural news media has ‘different roles, functions and priorities, compared to their metropolitan counterparts’ (p. 38). She also regards country newspapers as having ‘different audiences with different needs and values which shape a different product’. This view was also held by Cryle and Cosgrove (1999) who concluded that rural readers valued their rural newspapers for specific information on primary industry. For rural residents having left the land to work in town, both weeklies and local press helped maintain personal links with previous communities.

Vines identified a major policy found in rural papers as ‘community-ism’, seen as the media’s ‘preoccupation with the growth and prosperity of one’s city’ (Boorston, as cited in Vines, 2001, p. 38). This supports literature discussed earlier (Cahill, 1995; Kenyon, 1999; Kenyon & Black, 2001; McManamey & Falk, 2001) relating local newspapers to empowerment and transformation in their local communities. The country press in Australia

had historically, a function to promote and advance their community. One principle [to] which all country newspapers adhered, was the vigorous promotion and social advancement of their town and district (Walker, 1976, as cited in Vines, 2001, p. 39).

Further extending the role of the country press, Vines (2001) cites Brownrigg (1997), noted in a biography of the Yarrawonga Chronicle editor that the policy of the press advancing its town has evolved to encompass maintenance of community values:

The press serves an immediate need for various practical information as well as supporting a less tangible tacit need for confirmation of collective values (Vines, 2001, p. 31).

Vines’ findings from interviewing a number of editors raised issues similar to those of Archer (1999), Lauterer (1995, 2000), Emig (1995) and Kenyon (1999): that the chief focus of their papers’ content was directed towards success of the local, council issues, the town’s development, and furnishing a positive outlook:

When you’re working on a local paper, you are not after the sensational aspect. Readers want to see people in the street, their neighbours. People are very interested in the day-to-day events of the town. It’s not sensational, but it’s something they can’t get from other papers, and that’s our strength. (Editor, Colac Herald, as cited in Vines, 2001, p. 44)

This statement supports Archer’s (1996) findings noted earlier discussing community journalism, where he gave an example of the lady editor, in relation to what issues interest the community

Kirkpatrick (1999) notes that provincial newspapers in the Australian colonies in the early nineteenth century played a major role in the social development of their communities. They were seen as ‘significant forces in achieving social cohesion and distinctive “country- mindedness”’ (p. 35). How different are the issues occurring in community and rural press over time? Kirkpatrick (1999) saw that those early provincial papers

worked towards establishment of separate local government identities for communities. Each town wanted to agitate for social and material advancement, and its newspaper represented the community’s interests, pressing its claims as superior to those of other towns and living in expectation of the day when the halo of enterprise would shine brightly (Kirkpatrick, 1999, p. 35).

The press of the 1850s in Tasmania was an open forum for political discussion, and editors and proprietors were ‘political leaders who assumed the role of parliamentarians’ (Miller, 1952, p. 5). Miller viewed the press of this time as less literary and more political, assuming the form of a modern day daily newspaper, reporting in detail political, legal and commercial news. Reviews and magazine articles disappeared until later revived in special columns of the Saturday paper.

Australian studies and literature describe how issues are presented in community newspapers as democratic, subjective, and parochial or focused to engender local development (Forde, 1998, 1999; O’Connor, 1999; Kirkpatrick, 2001; Vines, 2001). Differences in issues and reportage between community newspapers and daily and mainstream newspapers is an area of discourse within community journalism education in Australian literature (Cunningham & Turner, 1997, 2002; Hurst & Provis, 2000; Cafarella, 2001; Kirkpatrick, 2001; Vines, 2001; Loo, 2001,).

Community development in Australian communities relates local community media to community regeneration and success (Wahlquist, 1999; Kenyon, 1999; Kenyon & Black, 2001; McManamey, 1999; McManamey & Falk, 2001). Individuals, through editing and coordination, influence what and how issues are presented in community newspapers. These individuals are viewed as altruistic (Moore-Robinson, 1933), computer literate, civic- minded/romantic/hard-edged business people/city refugees to publish and thrive (O’Connor, 1998). Community newspapers in Australian studies show strong support for local political causes and contribute to community cohesion and collective action in both a historical and a current context (Kirkpatrick, 1999; Brownrigg, as cited in Vines, 2001; Vines, 2001). In both Australian and broader literature, community newspapers are seen as a positive force acting for the good of their community.

Summary

Literature reviewed in relation to Research Question 2 chiefly reflected the relationship of newspapers to community, and how issues are presented. Very little literature was found

that touched on what is actually reported in community newspapers. How and why issues are framed in relation to a community contrasts with city, daily and metropolitan newspapers, and community, rural weekly papers. A focus on trust in this research question emerged both in how issues supporting their community’s development are reported and how distrust is generated by the sensational and biased reportage of issues, seen as a negative force in any nation, state, or community. Mass media focus on local and community issues signals a change in market strategies, related to an awareness of the democratic processes that are initiated at the community level through readership and participation. How issues are presented within community newspapers is strongly tied to the newspapers’ communities. Literature on Australian studies chiefly noted differences in issues, not initiated by movements, as in the United States, but by types of reporting. Differences and similarities in issues were raised between country, city, urban, and rural papers.

Research Question 3

What is the relationship between community newspapers and