Does local news even matter? The question was answered even before it was asked.
Of course it does, according to a study by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Washington, which on Thursday sponsored a panel discussion at the Vancouver Community Library to talk about the local news in Clark County.
Will Campbell, our innovation editor and one of the fourth-generation owners of The Columbian, represented us on the panel, but I attended to listen, take notes and report back to you about the discussion. If you want to learn more, the entire 90-minute forum was recorded by CVTV and is available on its site, cvtv.org.
The discussion kicked off with the report’s findings that a lack of local news leads to fewer candidates for public office, lower voter turnout and more use of highly partisan news sources. Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said nice things about local media in general and The Columbian in particular, talking about how local journalists build a partnership with information sources in city government, which allows local news and information to be reported fairly and accurately.
Next, the discussion turned to the difficulty consumers have in deciding what to believe. Panelist Regina Lawrence, associate dean at the University of Oregon’s Agora Journalism Center, said that is even a difficult question for journalism students these days. Social media can be accurate, or wildly inaccurate. Len Reed, an adjunct journalism professor at Washington State University Vancouver, talked about the need for media literacy. He noted that people spend hours every day looking at screens on computers, phones, tablets and other devices. “It’s very easy to get lost,” he said.
