« Kids who march | Main | Maryland's takeover debate misses the point »
April 3, 2006
Newspapers losing experienced local education reportersAs the American newspaper industry downsizes, it turns out that more and more experienced education reporters are taking buy-outs and retiring. The result is that readers and communities are losing important connections and information about their schools. This article from Columbia University reports that how this commonly plays out is that we all can expect fewer reporters at local school board meetings, and this is a bad thing.
"If this becomes the pattern, schools and students will be hurt because local education will tend to fade as a civic issue," says Ben Bagdikian, media critic and former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. "So when school bond issues and similar education-related problems get to a public vote, there will be more uninterested or poorly informed voters, less well-educated kids and everyone will suffer."
At the same time, other papers are finding ways to cover education in new ways, or using their Web sites to invite in reader comments and opinions as larger parts of the process. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog covering K-12 is a good read, for instance. Too many local newspapers fear innovation and change, plain and simple. Two attributes required in the new media world, like it or not.
Posted April 3, 2006 1:41 PM | School Boards
Trackback Pings
BoardBuzz Feed
