Media Criticism

Anyone who has lived in “flyover country” is aware of the prevalence of community newspapers in addition to major dailies. These newspapers put on the appearance of hard news provided under a folksy lens. The reality is that most of these community dailies, weeklies and monthlies are owned by major publishing companies and overzealous individuals. There are few aspects of community media left untouched by the growing slick of corporatism. The Port Reyes Light case offered in this month’s Columbia Journalism Review seems to be a microcosm of this problem.

Writer Jonathan Rowe outlines the takeover of the Light, a small community paper in West Marin County, California, by Robert Plotkin in 2005. Plotkin brought in the crass sensationalism and pretentiousness of a big-city journalist to a newspaper accustomed to covering local meetings and uncovering events. Plotkin’s approach to the Light alienated advertisers, old timers on the newspaper’s staff and others accustomed to pure journalism prior to the takeover. I was amazed to find out that the Light won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for investigating a local chemical company. The paper has won some local awards since Plotkin’s purchase of the paper though this has more to do with slick layouts and technical design instead of pertinent information.

The fight over the soul of the Port Reyes Light led former owner Dave Mitchell to work with the upstart West Marin Citizen and other projects to fight Plotkin’s journalism school sensibility. I admire Mitchell and others involved in fighting against the current version of the Light. There is something sacred about print dailies that talk about issues that matter to small communities. Journalism students may blanch at reporting on farm issues, debates over land use and other local issues but these are the lifeblood of most communities. West Marin County is not Los Angeles, Tokyo or London; it does not have the same issues as a major city. Reporters need to be acquainted with locals, going as far to live in the place they report on to become conversant in the issues.

I think the growth in self-publishing and blogging will benefit print dailies despite the antithetical nature of this statement. Individuals who see injustice in their own backyard will gain confidence in their writing ability as they show off their amateur journalistic skills. People who write about local issues in books that would not be published by a major publishing house and get some interest from readers will be emboldened to write more. The democratization of journalism means that students from Berkeley and Cambridge won’t be the only ones who can report on issues that matter to Americas living between the coasts. We can see with the situation in West Marin County that a small town in California can offer a plan of action for residents in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Montana.