I like to share our stats every once in a while. Not only do I find them endlessly fascinating (I love to see what interests you), but they tell me a lot about the state of local news in general. Recently, Google informed me that one of the top growing queries bringing people to our site is "Ethan Werstler" or some version of that. (The transfer station is also rising in our search queries because people are excited about that pilot program!) Werstler, for those who did not read our profile, is running for state representative.
This may seem uninteresting, but, in my opinion, it illustrates the importance of local news. Not many news outlets spend time covering local races, which is why our tiny news outlet surfaces on the first page of Google results when someone searches for a candidate. The lack of local news coverage also makes it hard for people to get information about their candidates. That’s why I extend an invitation to talk to all of our candidates, though they do not all take me up on that offer.
I’m sure that you, like me, have gotten recent mailings from our current representative and senator, as well as from the hopeful candidates for these positions. And, like me, I’m guessing you toss these in the recycling bin as soon as they arrive.
I’ve worked in media and marketing long enough to consider myself virtually immune to marketing (unless there is a picture of a woman on top of a mountain with her dog, and then I’m probably buying whatever you’re selling). The truth is, as a consumer, the only thing I do with most marketing is judge it. When I go into research mode before making a big purchase, in addition to signing up for Consumer Reports, I also turn to real humans for their reviews…especially ones that aren’t technically reviews.
Take, for instance, this video I recently came across on Instagram (that Subaru was smart enough to pick up on). In it, a woman describes a horrific accident that she and everyone in the car (including two dogs) walked away from because of the protection her vehicle provided. This echoes a video I once watched about a guy building a camping platform in the back of his Subaru Outback. He happened to be a firefighter and mentioned in passing that he used to have a pickup truck. After responding to multiple accident scenes where an Outback protected the people inside of it, he vowed his next vehicle would be an Outback. My driveway is filled with Subarus (one of which is approaching antique status) because of human testimonies like these. (Those commercials with dogs driving the cars are just icing on the cake.)
So, what’s the political equivalent of someone on the internet talking about terrible accidents they have survived? Well, 20 years ago, when I began my reporting career, our newspaper’s pages were filled with Letters to the Editor in the lead-up to an election. People expressed their support for local candidates, gave their reasoning, and signed their names. I hope that, as we get closer to voting day, we will hear from more of you about your local candidate preferences via Letters to the Editor. (Frankly, I would love to hear more of your thoughts on literally anything happening in town.)
A lot has changed since I started reporting in 2003, and I’m confronted with that daily. Social media was not even on our radar back then, but today, I have to spend time posting to our page and all relevant groups in town while occasionally engaging with comments. If there is one thing I wish people would understand, it’s that social media is not an effective place to be heard by the people who matter. Unless you respond directly to them, there is no reason to believe they will ever see your comments (and even then, there’s no telling how much they pay attention to their social accounts). We are all at the whim of the algorithms, and some (me included) might say it’s ruining everything.
Evaluating candidates is hard, especially when local news is reduced to one person typing away in her home office. This isn’t an investigative outlet. That kind of journalism costs lots of money and requires a lot of time. However, the community's opinion matters. Did you meet one of the new candidates at an event? Did they win you over? Beyond campaigning, there should be people in this town who can point to current elected officials and say, “So and so helped me by…” or “When I called so and so, he didn’t pick up the phone…” When my uncle was injured during Vietnam, and my grandmother could not find out where he was, she enlisted the help of George H.W. Bush, who was her congressman at the time. Nana wasn’t even an American citizen then, but Bush still helped her track down my uncle in a military hospital.
Many years ago, we lost sight of what elected officials should be doing: serving the people. These days, we tend to let marketing determine who we vote for. While I hope none of your loved ones are MIA, I do hope that when you reach out to an elected official, they help you with your problems (or are at least honest about why they cannot). I hope that when a candidate knocks on your door, you feel like they took the time to listen. In the absence of a robust reporting team of investigative journalists ready to dig into the sordid (or, more likely, incredibly boring) histories of our candidates for elected office, I implore you all to have your voices heard!
