Reporter and local news Blog Post
Community stories rely heavily on the state of the community. Some communities are poorer, some are wealthier, and could contain a wide variety of ages according to this article from the Pew Research Center.
I noticed that Emily Brown said the same thing. Many of the people were concerned about one thing during her time there. The Nelson County Pipeline project. This was likely considered a time of crisis for those who did not want the pipeline installed.
We fast-forward to 2020. There is a global pandemic. How does a community section fit in?
Brown spoke of relationships being formed because of her reporting on different topics in Nelson County. I imagine those relationships would give her good insight into what the people there care about.
Those people would probably want to know what they can do during the pandemic that is safe. Community stories are perfect for that. They get information out on safe events during this time. This is even more important in larger cities like Lynchburg or Richmond.
People are spread out in these areas and rely heavily on local reporters to give them the information. Somewhere small like Nelson County could rely more on word of mouth since most people just know each other.
The first point I am making is that the community stories obviously rely heavily on the type of people you have there. Stories from Henrico County are going to be vastly different from stories in the city of Hopewell, simply because Henrico is widely wealthier. They are going to care about different things.
My second point is that size matters. A larger city with more people is going to rely on the local news to tell them about community events. Some cities will have multiple news offices per section of the city, because it is so large.
Community reporting is relied on for sure. Whether people read it in the newspaper, or go online, they want to know about their community happenings. It is dependent on the people you report on. Your stories will cater to them regardless because they are your sources.
