| Show UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION If we stick to the office all day we ought to be out hunting things to write about if we go out and try to hustle we ought to be on the job in the office If we donaccept contributions we donappreciate genius if we print them the paper is full of junk If we edit the other fellowstory we re too critical if we don we re asleep If we clip things from other papers we re too lazy to write them if we donwe re stuck with our own stuff Now like as not some guy will say we swiped this from some other paper We did Inmore serious vein thoughtful description of community newspapering was written by John Andrist of the Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle It appeared in the January 1992 issue of The Washington Newspaper publication of Washington Newspaper Publishers Association of which he was then President In part he wrote Community journalism has little to do with size andlot to do with heart and character It has nothing to do with how often we publish our newspapers and everything to do with how we look at people and the locality on which we focus our news coverage Community journalism doesnsacrifice quality good writing or accuracy to attain that focus It doesnsacrifice fair ness nor color the facts to build the links which connect people What we achieve in community newspapering issense of identity that connects us with our readers and our readers with everything we publish We know we ve made that connection when we hear people calling us THE newspaper or remarking that OUR newspaper says and quoting us Connection is what we re all about Connecting people to people readers to community institutions to us instead of them Now and again though fortunately not with consistency the press is accused of inaccuracy To which noted Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee whose paper uncovered the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration responded that newspapers are the first rough draft of history His train of thought was picked up by Peter Andrews in American Heritage who 404 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |
