Editorial
Local Journalism
Early in March, I participated in a three-day media forum organized by the Miami Foundation. Journalists, funders and community leaders convened to address pressing issues such as the importance of local media in fostering a sense of community.
Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen observed: “We’ve chosen to focus on finding sustainable models that will deliver consistently reliable news digitally and locally. We made that choice because digital is where the crowd is, and because local journalism is a way to build community cohesion and community bonding. Good local journalism is also how you build trust in institutions, including in the media itself. A citizen can trust local news — but they can also verify. They need only step outside their homes to judge the quality of the report.”
This statement reinforces the purpose behind Downtown News, which is focusing exclusively on the neighborhood, covering apparently insignificant issues that non-the-less impact the lives of residents. To write about traffic lights, street potholes, decaying trees, scooters obstructing sidewalks, or homelessness might not be sexy enough as national and international affairs, but local journalism is the one tool residents have to remind elected officials that while it is great to have cheerleaders on the national stage, municipal officials are elected — if not principally — to manage the city and improve the lives of their constituents.
The other side of the local media coin is highlighting our local talent, business and civic leaders, educators, police officers, and artists. And promote culture, from the culinary arts to music, from theater and ballet to our world-class art, science, architecture, and history museums.
A changing community like Downtown, observed James Torres, the new President of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance (DNA), combines elements of a big city and a small town, and that is the beauty of our neighborhood — or neighborhoods. Downtown News and the Downtown Neighbors Alliance recognize the diversity that exists in Downtown’s multiple enclaves, and continue providing a voice to Park West residents’ seeking to have their input on the future of Maurice Ferré Park, and a voice to those neighbors along the Miami River clamoring for noise control, or for the demands Central Business District residents pose for reasonable measures to fix the complex and perilous issue of homelessness.
Downtown News is the local advocate for a the community. Such approach places an emphasis on public service. In that sense, I echo Darryl Holliday, cofounder of City Bureau, a civic journalism nonprofit, who observed, writing for the Columbia University Journalism Review: The journalists we need today are not heroic observers of crisis — they are conveners, facilitators, organizers, educators, on-demand investigators, and community builders.
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