Paulgaard: Local stories, told with integrity, should matter to us all

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In small town Alberta where I grew up, it was common to see headlines such as The case of the cow in the second-storey window and Coyote captured in town in the local paper.

In the morning before school, I ate my cereal and flipped through its pages, reading the Street Spokesman – the weekly Q&A with community members out-and-about – and checking to see if I knew anyone in the front-page photo.

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It’s where I checked out the prom dresses of high school graduates and imagined what my own would look like.

It didn’t take long: There were fewer than 50 grads a year between the two local high schools.

Still, the paper is what inspired me as a 10-year-old – at least for a day or two – to create my own newspaper for my parents to hang on the fridge.

And it’s what pushed me into journalism school.

To many, none of these stories are newsworthy. But in a town of 2,000 people, these stories were the news. They mattered because they were about neighbours, friends and family.

With journalists across the country losing their jobs at an alarming rate, local journalism is under threat.

“Journalism is like a patient with chronic and acute issues,” says Mirko Petricevic, founder and co-ordinator of Ink-Stained Wretches. The mission of the volunteer group founded by former staff of the Waterloo Region Record is to fight for local journalism.

“The acute issue is that we need regulation just for news organizations to keep the doors open, but the chronic issue is the culture shift,” he says. There are fewer and fewer  people who “think it’s important to keep up on local events.”

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And that declining interest and audience means one of journalism’s most important functions as a watchdog, once taken for granted,  also is declining. The news of the arrest of Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin in Edmonton was chilling to read. A journalist with Ricochet Media, a national, nonprofit media outlet funded by reader donation, was reporting on a homeless encampment when Edmonton police began a raid on the area.

Morin was arrested and charged while covering one of the most controversial topics in local news. The encampment where she was arrested was largely made up of Indigenous people, and Morin began to record video of police.

Reporting on treatment of marginalized groups is one of the most important tasks a journalist can undertake, but how can that happen if journalists are denied access to local news events?

One of the most important jobs journalists have is to share the stories of those who cannot tell them themselves.

Local newspapers are meant to tell the stories of those we know – like my old local paper – but also those we do not know. They are meant to tell us when elected officials are not acting in the public interest. They are meant to tell us when police are abusing their powers.

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“Journalism saves us all time and money. I don’t have to spend three hours at a (municipal) council meeting to know what’s going on at council. The greatest reason for why local journalism matters is that watchdog aspect over those in power,” Petricevic says.

He started Ink-Stained Wretches to “build a culture of appreciation for local journalism.”

Important stories are in the local news.

Whether reporting on the removal of encampments or the coyote threatening the town’s pet population, local journalists are telling stories we need to hear.

This essay is this year’s winner of the HaakSaan Responsible Journalism Scholarship awarded annually to a full-time student in Western University’s master of media in journalism and communication program. The winning student must demonstrate integrity and write a column demonstrating a commitment to responsible journalism. This scholarship was established by Bryan Byong-Kuon Kim in memory of his parents to promote and enhance social justice, peace and harmony by encouraging responsible journalism.

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