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From the early days of community journalism until today, community journalists have had to learn on a regular basis for their job. Emily Brown spoke in class about how she has had to
constantly learn on the job, and that journalists should acknowledge that they don’t know everything and be willing to ask someone who does know about a topic. For Brown, that could be
asking about zoning laws or trying to understand a court sentencing. Learning about laws or the history of a courthouse is not the only way that community journalists can learn on the job.
Technology is constantly changing and adapting, and community journalists should learn to change and adapt along with it. Panelists at the ONA local news panel spoke about the importance of
innovation in community news and utilizing current technology and trends to engage the audience and community. Local media organizations can also look to see what other organizations are
doing, and possibly try to copy what others are doing that appears to work. Additionally, they spoke about the importance of connecting local people with a reporter to listen and tell their
stories. It doesn’t matter if a community reporter learns about new technology or different court laws if the reporter and newspaper or local media platform does not reach out to an
audience, give the audience the information they desire and build a relationship with the members of that community. Both Emily Brown and the local news panel spoke about the importance of
listening to people and establishing trust and a relationship with the local community. As one of the panelists said, people want to know information like why a helicopter is flying over
their heads and turn to their local media for answers. People also look to local media for information about what happened at the local school board meeting that the parents were unable to
attend, as another panelist mentioned. Some papers require readers to log in with their subscription information to read an article after a certain amount of free articles. I think one way
that local media organizations could better connect with readers would be to ask the reader to either sign in or answer a question asking what that reader would like to see coverage of or to
suggest a story idea. That would give the organization more information to provide better coverage, which could lead to more subscribers. It would also provide a way for people who might
not be able to afford a regular subscription the opportunity to read the articles. Websites for news organizations could also try to give reader feedback or engagement options a more
prominent location on the organization’s webpage, as I don’t see that featured very prominently often. This would help increase reader awareness that there is a location for them to engage
with the media organization, and it would give the organization important feedback.