Blog
February 19th 2010 | 2
What kind of news are you into?
One of the challenges of being the news assignment editor at The Uniter is figuring out how to offer unique news stories, such that you don’t get elsewhere.
This leads me to ponder the question: What is news?
News is events. That grammatically awkward semi-sentence is as succinct as I can put it. Another way is to say that news is what you make it.
The Uniter‘s method is to keep a local focus and to not copy what other mainstream media (MSM) sources are up to. I read the Winnipeg Free Press daily, listen to CBC as often as I can and keep up-to-date on what independent journalists in Winnipeg are up to. (I read a lot more than that, but you get the idea.) I have no interest in reading the same story twice, so why should you?
It sometimes happens that we cover a story you’ve seen elsewhere, like cap and trade, Haitian relief efforts and prorogation. We always try to offer a unique angle on these stories. We want to appeal to not only the student population, but to those living downtown and all over Winnipeg.
As a weekly publication, it’s hard to keep up with dailies like the Free Press. However, we still manage to scoop the MSM sometimes, such as our story on the supposed city-sanctioned graffiti which the Free Press picked up on three days later. Or, like when we published the story on the new disability studies program at the U of W, days before the official press conference announcement.
What we don’t look for are: car crashes, petty crime and other pieces with seemingly little relevance beyond striking fear in the hearts of citizens. I always cringe when I hear about a car accident on the news - it’s a tragedy when lives are lost, but beyond updating the traffic report, I am puzzled why the public needs to know. I understand that a dramatic angle is needed to capture people’s attention - especially for TV broadcasting (nothing jumps from the screen like a twisted, smoking wreckage), so sometimes drama takes precedent to news. But at the same time, while we’re offered windows into tragedy like that, we don’t often hear about suicides though they are much more dramatic and occur nearly as often. What makes one tragedy more newsworthy than another?
So what makes better news? Federal mandates or bikini girls? I’m not going to say you shouldn’t watch TV news or read the tabloids, but it’s nice to know that there are options, isn’t it?
If you have any thoughts about this or just plain disagree, feel free to write us! We publish letters to the editor and welcome the chance to engage in the debate on our blogs. Write to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and pitch the car-crashingest story you can think of. I’ll still be puzzled.
Discussion
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I personally don’t care where my news come from, as long as the news in question is (a) reliable, (b) balanced, and (c) relevant to my interests. I have yet to find any proudly “independent and unique” news outlet whose output meets the (b) and (c) criteria at the same time. So I stick to wire service copy, repetition be damned.
Crime and traffic stories are printed because they draw attention to things the local authorities haven’t done to make sure they don’t keep happening. Citizens cannot demand change if they don’t know where change is warranted. Crime, traffic, and federal mandates affect us all; local businesses using iPhone apps as marketing tools does not.
– Jess C. in Winnipeg, MB | February 22nd 2010 at 6:48pm | Link
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I appreciate the variety and originality of the news that you cover. I just disagree with your statement that we shouldn’t have to read a story twice. Information can be slightly (or immensely) biased and in order to form one’s own opinion, multiple sources should be consulted.
– Rachel Andrushuk in Winnipeg, MB | February 25th 2010 at 2:59pm | Link
