LAWTON – Small communities are at risk of losing their local newsrooms, which prompted three area journalists to encourage cooperation and trust between residents and news outlets in the Lawton area.
Sharicka Brackens, news director at KWSO- Channel 7, The Lawton Constitution Publisher David Stringer and Southwest Ledger Associate Publisher JJ Francais recently discussed the problem at the State of the Media and Communications during a Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“I want people to know the importance of local journalism and how we can work together,” Brackens said. “There’s a big difference between local news and what people see on the national news. We want to work with the community and shine light on the issues; we’re not here to pit people against each other.”
Unfortunately, Brackens noted, is that “anyone with a phone or camera thinks they’re a journalist.”
Stringer agreed that too many people are satisfied they’re getting their daily dose of news from social media, when in fact, they’re consuming gossip and rumors.
“It (social media) presents a real danger of people finding their news there. We live here and we work here. We live in the midst of what we cover,” he said, adding that national news outlets, on occasion, “swoop in,” cover a sensational high-profile story and leave town.
“All too often the public sees the media as a single group and they assume that we all have the same motives,” Francais said. “At Southwest Ledger our focus is hyper local. Before covering each story we ask ourselves, ‘will someone in southwest Oklahoma be better off having read it?’ While CNN and FOX focus on national issues, we focus our efforts on the decisions that impact our lives daily.”
Another unfortunate truth is that newspapers are shutting down and leaving many smaller communities without their main source of local information while creating a news desert, Stringer said. In 2019, Brookings Institution, an nonpartisan think tank providing data and insights on various issues, reported more than 65 million Americans were living in counties with only one newspaper or none at all.
The preservation of local news makes communities better because they’re able to hold public officials accountable, help communities get to know each other better and drive conversations about critical local issues.
Meanwhile, Brackens said journalists at KSWO try to highlight local news but are kept at bay because of lack of access to public records, which in some cases, becomes a daily battle.
“We also get viewers who ask ‘why aren’t you reporting this?’ We have to verify everything we report,” she said.
KSWO has tried to gain more public support by decreasing national news coverage and focusing more closely on local reporting.