Community Journalism?

Community journalism is defined as "reporting of news and information for a certain geographic area... a community, if you will, with the purpose to serve the best interests of that certain group....'Make them happy... make them mad... but whatever you do... make them think.'"

Chapel Hill and Carrboro are served by two newspaper conglomerates, the Herald Sun and the News and Observer, both of which allocate a page to goings-on in each county within their service area. The N&O also owns the subsidiary Chapel Hill News, which covers Orange County in more detail. The most recent addition to the local media scene is the Carrboro Citizen which promised to provide more in depth coverage of local politics and arts. And then there are the broadcast media.

With all this coverage, you would think that our local news would be covered with more than a cursory nod. So where is the coverage on alderman Dan Coleman's assault with a deadly weapon? Both the N&O and the Herald covered the story the day after the incident, although the Herald omitted the fact that it occurred during a Carrboro High School cross country meet. Three days later the Carrboro Citizen still hasn't updated it's electronic version, as it did promptly when John McCormick was arrested.

The police have 5 written, eye-witness accounts to the incident, in addition to Dan's written statement and the verbal report made by the alleged victim. None of these individuals have been interviewed. Carrboro High has not been asked to confirm that an official cross country meet was underway and that Ms Kotecki was an authorized volunteer. Nor has Carrboro Parks and Recreation provided any confirmation that they knew the meet was taking place and that traffic could be disrupted. Isn't it the role of local media to confirm the facts of a case such as this? And yet we know nothing more than was reported the morning after the incident based.

The incident itself is distressing, but what I am more concerned about is this lack of media coverage. Dan was a regular columnist for the Herald prior to his appointment to the BOA and had frequent guest posts in the Chapel Hill News. More than likely he has friendships with the Carrboro Citizen editorial staff. Do these personal and professional ties explain the lack of investigation? This is an election year and Dan will be running for the first time. Will it be left to his detractors to cover this story on Squeeze the Pulp or other citizen-based outlets. Or will the press step forward and try to provide a more detailed and unbiased account?

Sometime back Fred Black wrote that the financial model of print newspapers precludes investigative journalism. And yet looking at the number of outlets dedicated just to Orange County, I find it hard to believe that staffing can explain this current failure. Is local journalism broken or just protecting one of its own?