Originally posted by adam warlock
I understand that, but I just don't see the USA government (or any other government) interested in running local news.
My main criticism to local newspaper is that they only regurgitate national and international news by the major media.
The main concern here is the question of whether there are now an increasing number of places where it is no longer profitable to gather information about LOCAL news events, photograph them, analyze them, and write articles about them.
In order for a local level democracy to function properly, the voters need to be aware of the various events and issues that occur at a local level. If local news organizations are unable to continue existing, what will replace them? (I will call them "news organizations" because it really doesn't matter if they print their news on physical paper or use the internet - that's not the issue here).
If any "government" was to take on this function, it would obviously be the LOCAL government, possibly with a general subsidy from the national or state level. But this doesn't seem to be a satisfactory solution since one of the major tasks for a news organization is to analyze and criticize things that the current government is doing.
Perhaps an entrepreneur somewhere will come up with a whole new business model for running a local news organization that will be profitable. Or maybe people would be willing to donate money to a non-profit news organization. A few of these small towns might go back to the old-fashioned approach of personally meeting together in the town square or the local market and sharing all of the latest gossip. Or maybe most of the people living in these places will just move to places that can sustain a news organization.
State run newspapers?
22 Apr '10 19:33
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