Here is a good example of localizing a major national story. The Los Angeles Times looked at unemployment and then talked about black unemployment nationally and then in California. But there’s a step they didn’t take and that step is where ethnic media can always step forward. They tell us about what’s happening in their neighborhoods, on their streetcorners, at their churches, their schools.
And it is not so hard.
There are ways of getting the numbers for smaller communities. But a good reporter can also put together some measures on their own and tell the same story. A story with a very focused angle.
How do you do this?
You talk to the people who feel the economy in their pockets, on their stores’ shelves and in their daily economic life. You find out how they are doing now and how they see and feel the differences. What’s happening at the grocery store, the local bank, the used clothes stores, and worse yet the payday loan shop or pawn store. What’s happening at the temporary help store? This is how you build a story from the street up and when people read or listen to it, they know it is true and that is matters.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-blackjobs21-2009mar21,0,1632483.story?track=ntothtml
Here is another example of putting a human face on a story that has been much talked about – the loss of jobs for immigrants without papers. A story also that the ethnic press has written about. What makes this article by the New York Times so good is its use of charts, a video and community discussion to make this story real.
Say you don’t have all of these resources. Can you do the same.?
Yes, but on a smaller scale. You can use a video and let readers comment online and you can give them the latest data in charts that shows what is happening now. Or you can tack on a poll. And most of this won’t cost you very much. You don’t have to change overnight. But at least begin.
