Monday, October 18, 2010

Major Project: Has quality local news lost its way in our globalised media world?

My major project is a television interview which is covering the topic 'globalisation and localisation' with a specific focus on local news. I have always been interested in local journalism and with the rapid changes occuring in our globalised media world, I wanted to investigate why local news is more important than ever.
I began by reseraching my topic to understand some of the key issues surrounding local news. The most helpful resource was a Media Watch video called 'News is Cheap News, No News is Cheaper' which discusses the changing nature of local journalism. It mainly focused on how Prime and Southern Cross Ten now produce most of their local and regional content out of their Canberra-based studios. In some cases, their quick news updates use "recycled" news that is filmed the day before using the 'Monday' shirt (ABC, 2010). This really interested me and got me wondering, what is this doing to the journalism industry and the very values it strives to achieve? Is quality local news now more important than ever?
So after some more research I drafted my interview questions and interviewed Paul Lobb, a local journalist from NBN Television. The interview was held on Friday and it went really well. I successfully gained an inside perspective on what's happening to local news and where it is headed in this changing journalism landscape.

Paul came to the conclusion that people need local news more than ever because it is the source that tells people what's happening in their own backyard. No matter how quick people can now receive news (i.e. over the Internet), local news is and I think always will be, essential to the community.

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