8 ms·

How is local news essential to democracy or help make better voting decisions? For example, according to Patch (which is not nonprofit) this morning, if I excl

by VLM 7y ago

How is local news essential to democracy or help make better voting decisions? For example, according to Patch (which is not nonprofit) this morning, if I exclude the vast amount of advertising and pathological fake news and focus on actual local coverage, in my hometown the local electronics recycling program is temporarily moving because of road construction, and three miles across town the police have reported three recent delivery package thefts. How would either story influence me being more or less likely to vote for Trump in 2020? There's been an intense cultural shift towards not making informed decisions in the voting booth; one MUST either vote along demographic identity lines or optionally follow groupthink or keep very, very quiet lest suffer possibly violent consequences. If those cultural trends change, then there would be motivation for informed voting. However, "everyone in charge" at this time likes the system and its a disinformation to pretend informed voting is relevant at this time. The problem at this time isn't "voter education" but "conform to your group or be punished".

cartoonworld 7y ago
(Convinced into) Not voting for Trump hasn't as much to do with a well functioning of democracy. >There's been an intense cultural shift towards not making informed decisions in the voting booth; [...] These latter points ring with me, and I think bolster the argument that higher quality local news will aid our democracy. Currently, if you scope out the national press, you get a national point of view. Without reporters writing about the affect that the national story will have on the local economy (aka "Me", "Our Community", "Our schools") voters can only be informed on one level. When the air qualify affects your neighbors due to reduced EPA mandates, or school taxes go up because federal dollars evaporate, or kids are learning to check boxes in standardized tests, or the local banks get bought and sold to multinationals, and everyone mortgage is underwater along with the back yard, I think I might see a lot more value the work of a local reporter making local connections to these national ideas. A robot can post about the reycling on patch, but can that robot also mention that a federal mandate makes the import tariff on transistors a little higher, and that Genui-Sys Integrations is gonna be underwater on its ECU contract, so possibly Billy's dad will face the pink slip? Real Example: I didn't know that GM was contracting some electronics manufacturing to a pick and place shop floor in my county until I saw the shutters and asked around: "Hey what did that company even make? Bad market or what?" They made car parts.
toast0 7y ago
Local news won't help much with informed voting for national candidates, unless there's something specific going on like President X is working to close down the local industry etc. It can be very helpful for informing about local candidates. Even the nearby metropolitan newspaper isn't going to tell me about the incumbent running for reelection who only showed up to one board meeting in the last term; I need the local county newspaper for that.

by VLM 7y ago

cartoonworld 7y ago

(Convinced into) Not voting for Trump hasn't as much to do with a well functioning of democracy. >There's been an intense cultural shift towards not making informed decisions in the voting booth; [...] These latter points ring with me, and I think bolster the argument that higher quality local news will aid our democracy. Currently, if you scope out the national press, you get a national point of view. Without reporters writing about the affect that the national story will have on the local economy (aka "Me", "Our Community", "Our schools") voters can only be informed on one level. When the air qualify affects your neighbors due to reduced EPA mandates, or school taxes go up because federal dollars evaporate, or kids are learning to check boxes in standardized tests, or the local banks get bought and sold to multinationals, and everyone mortgage is underwater along with the back yard, I think I might see a lot more value the work of a local reporter making local connections to these national ideas. A robot can post about the reycling on patch, but can that robot also mention that a federal mandate makes the import tariff on transistors a little higher, and that Genui-Sys Integrations is gonna be underwater on its ECU contract, so possibly Billy's dad will face the pink slip? Real Example: I didn't know that GM was contracting some electronics manufacturing to a pick and place shop floor in my county until I saw the shutters and asked around: "Hey what did that company even make? Bad market or what?" They made car parts.

toast0 7y ago

Local news won't help much with informed voting for national candidates, unless there's something specific going on like President X is working to close down the local industry etc. It can be very helpful for informing about local candidates. Even the nearby metropolitan newspaper isn't going to tell me about the incumbent running for reelection who only showed up to one board meeting in the last term; I need the local county newspaper for that.