Does the local media provide well-rounded Durham coverage?
I love journalism. So I defend the craft as often as I can, particularly local journalism. As a former reporter for the Durham Herald-Sun, however, I’ve heard countless times that local media only focuses on crime stories in Durham. This, of course, isn’t entirely true.
Still, the Bull City doesn’t seem to get as much positive press as its Triangle siblings. That’s just an observation, of course. I’ve never charted out all the local media coverage. If someone wants to take the time to do that and share the results, I’d love to publish that on my blog.
Meanwhile, here’s a screenshot from today’s News & Observer’s Durham news section. This is probably why Durham residents feel cheated out of positive local coverage. There are six crime stories, and one story about a proposed bill that could help reduce crime:
By no means am I saying the media should ignore crime news. And I’m sure if you dig around on the N&O’s website you can find some happier Durham stories. But this caught my eye this morning and I had to share it with you all.
Do you think the local media provides well-rounded Durham coverage?
I think in general most media focuses too much on crime stories. Durham does have a higher crime rate than the rest of the Triangle last I checked but when the media covers so many crime stories, it makes Durham look even worse. I suppose it is easier to cover crime stories and it is definitely attention getting. Crime stories just don’t add much value for me because they almost never have anything to do with my daily life. I’d prefer stories about who/what/how to make the community better, not the bad that is happening in the community.
Good point. I’d agree with your observation that there are a lot of Durham crime stories in your screen shot. Even if the amount of crime stories is proportional to the overall news in Durham (that’s a judgment call above my pay grade), everyone eventually tires of reading bad news.
That said, the links to photo galleries on the right side of the screen shot are mostly positive slices of Durham life.
But I do realize a lot of those features are considerably older (and thus, less newsy) than the collection of crime briefs.
Full disclosure: I’m an N&O employee (designer), though I don’t handle any Web operations.
I think that’s why Durham has responded so well to MyNC.com though. Its an opportunity to get the positive out there. Chapel Hill has not been as quick to use MyNC.com b/c as residents have told me, they already get a good amount of positive coverage without lifting a finger; why make the effort to post to MyNC.com?
As far as print media goes, I’ve always thought the Independent Weekly does a better job than the dailies at providing a balance of both positive and negative across all three points of the Triangle.