
1 minute read
Survey indicates readers want more "service journalism"


Advertisement
A survey of newspaper readers in three New Jersey cities found a desire for more service journalism in the form of information about municipal government meetings or contact information for local leaders, according to a recent article by Laura

Hazard Owen of Neiman Lab.
Sarah Stonbely, the research director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, surveyed residents of Blairstown, Paterson and Trenton, New Jersey, about what they need from their local news outlets.
While the demographics of each city vary widely – Paterson, one of New Jersey’s largest cities, is majority-Hispanic and also has a sizable proportion of Arab residents; Trenton, another large city and the New Jersey state capital, is roughly half Black; and Blairstown is a small, rural town that is more than 90% white – Stonbely found that readers desired a calendar or list of local meetings they could attend, and, lacking up-to-date information from newspapers, often turned to Facebook groups to fill the gap.
“I got the impression that people used [Facebook for local news] pretty grudgingly,” said Stonbely to Owen in the article. “They felt like it was kind of their best worst option, because of the drain of local news, plus people are
Community news organizations are often integral to the vitality of a community. Studies, and common sense, have indicated that communities that lack good local news have less civic involvement, more corruption, higher taxes and lower voter turnout.
So, isn’t it about time for the government to encourage banks to treat local news as an essential community service?
As readers of this publication know, federal banking regulators are right now considering changes to the implementing regulations for the Community Reinvestment Act. CRA was enacted in 1977 to remedy the discriminatory effects of disinvestment in low- and moderateincome communities, and affirmed that a bank has an obligation to “meet the credit needs of its entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operation of such institution.” In 1995, new rules required that CRA performance reviews take into account banks’ responsiveness to community investment needs and the provision of community development services. The law has, to some extent, worked. CRA incentivized banks to join forces with the public sector and philanthropy to create new credit and investment products that have, in turn, leveraged tens of billions for such essential community infrastructure as affordable housing, small business development, primary health and day care centers and food markets. It has spurred the establishment of “mission driven” lenders, such as Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which specialize in financing investment in the unique needs of underinvested communities and businesses.
But these investments become far riskier when there are not good, reliable sources of information for residents and civic leaders — and reporting that holds politicians and institutions accountable.