Your City Or Your Country - What Matters The Most?

        

How is the pandemic impacting this country's economy, and how is Mr. Lee and his elderly mother being affected by that? (Photo: The Age)

        I love news bloopers. You know when someone says something inappropriate on live TV? Or a reporter is covering a story and something super weird happens? That’s my kind of humor. Of course, it’s also amazing to see how anchors and reporters manage to maneuver the situation in such a professional way. Being a journalist is not for the faint of heart!

But let’s say you are not looking for entertainment. You actually want to know what is going on in the world around you! What do you do? Where do you go? When you get to the newsstand, which paper should you choose to read? Who is more well-informed - someone who reads the local news, or people who read national papers?

Let’s take a closer look. The Age is a renowned Melbourne-based paper in Australia that has been published since 1854. Today, I spent some time reading through their official, national coverage website and then compared it to their local news of Melbourne. What I wanted was to understand the main differences in the way they address similar issues, and what angle each paper chooses to show.

The subject I chose was the Coronavirus pandemic. Easy choice, since it’s being discussed everywhere. Here is what I noticed: while both pages cover the topic, the national coverage is very scientific and political. It analyses predictions, current restrictions, and it frequently quotes Prime Minister Scott Morrison. When someone else is quoted, it is usually a big cheese that will address the issue in general terms. Even when a story is a bit more specific, like the one I read about the impact of the pandemic on Victorian farmers, the person they chose to quote was the Federal Agriculture Minister - not the actual farmers. The idea is to bring information that is relevant to a very wide audience. It's meant to be informative, not necessarily relatable.

Meanwhile, the local news from the same paper addresses, as you can probably guess, the impact in the community, on a personal level. If people want to see the big picture, they can easily find information elsewhere online. The goal here is to share the struggles of common people, those who could very easily be ourselves or our next-door neighbour. Here, you will find how people are dealing with repeated lockdowns. You can find information on where you can get vaccinated, or where the last cluster was. You are likely to feel seen and heard, there is advice on how to stay healthy and happy during these trying times, or where to look for help. The people that are quoted are usually civilians, local doctors, primary school teachers - those who are closer to the community.

        A Knight-Gallup study from 2019 found that people are more likely to trust local news than national papers. According to their findings, local journalists are seen as “more caring (36%), trustworthy (29%) and neutral or unbiased (23%).” However, there seems to be a very thin line. People who prefer to rely on local news are often those who are more involved in the community, and someone’s trust on local papers can vary depending on their political stance. If too many controversial topics start to appear on local outlets, people can very quickly start questioning the paper’s credibility and stop reading it.

What conclusion can we draw from all this? Which paper should we be reading? I believe it is safe to say that each of the two kinds of news are vital sources of information, and the general population should have the habit of consulting both on a regular basis. While local news brings a sense of comfort and familiarity, encouraging people to become involved in their community, we also need to acknowledge that our lives are bound to be affected by topics that might feel more distant to us.