Staying informed

Last Friday, I attended an event at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain.

The event was called “A Press and Community Convening” and was open to community members as well as members of the press.

The purpose of the event was “to explore solutions together, addressing the 62% distrust in news media and envisioning ways to rebuild trust at the local level.”

That 62 percent figure was based on the Arkansas Civic Health Index Report, which led to the launch of Civic Arkansas. At last week’s event, representatives of Civic Arkansas noted that the 62 percent figure was based on distrust of national news media and that local news sources tend to engender much more trust in the community. They also noted that the overwhelming number of responses they received during “listening sessions” around the state indicated that Arkansas residents want to be engaged and involved in their communities but sometimes don’t know how to accomplish that.

At the risk of sounding self-serving, I would humbly suggest that one very good way to be engaged and involved is by reading your local newspaper.

The Carroll County News is a very good local newspaper. That statement is subjective, of course. But I believe there are plenty of objective facts to back up that opinion. This is a newspaper that has literally received national awards for covering our community. We’ve been recognized as the best newspaper relative to our circulation in the state seven times in the past nine years. And yet our circulation is nowhere near what I believe it should be. And the same people who don’t read the newspaper will then turn around and complain about not knowing what’s happening in Carroll County.

Here’s the example I use when I explain that: In 2017, the Berryville School District asked for a millage increase to fund a multimillion dollar construction project that included a new high school building, a performing arts center and a new football stadium among other things.

This newspaper covered the issue from beginning to end, reporting on every school board meeting. Beyond that, we published an award-winning threepart series explaining details of the proposal. We published an advance story leading up to the school election when the proposal was on the ballot. And still, there was at least one Facebook post from a local resident asking why they just found out about the proposal on election day. I suppose I should at least be grateful that person voted. Or maybe not, if they were that ill-informed. But that’s a topic for another day.

Part of last week’s event was small group discussions about what can be done to improve Arkansas residents’ access to local news. My stance on that issue is that access to local news is available to those who want it and who recognize the value in it. That’s the real challenge.

One local Facebook group page posts photos of pages in the newspaper every now and then. Recently, there was a photo of a story of great local interest. That story started on Page 1 and jumped to an inside page. And, of course, one person commented that they’d like to see a photo of the jump page so they could read the rest of the story without paying for a subscription.

I couldn’t help myself. I replied that I’d like to have the paper printed at no charge, that I’d like to have a website maintained for free, that I’d like to not have to pay for office space, computers, electricity, etc.

For the record, a subscription to this newspaper costs $52 a year. That’s $1 a week to have the paper delivered straight to your mailbox every week. If you’re a veteran or a senior, we offer a discounted rate. Or, if you only want to read the paper every now and then, you can buy a single copy for $1.25. If the information in this newspaper isn’t worth $1 or $1.25 to you, there may be a larger issue at play.

Of course, you can choose to get your “news” from social media. Like the “murder” that happened last week at Stoney Point. That’s sarcasm. There was no murder. Just a burnedout, abandoned van. I know because I was there at the same time as law enforcement. But a Facebook post about the “murder” is still up. And I’m sure someone will come along soon to declare that there’s been a cover-up and a grand conspiracy.

That’s enough ranting from me. I’d like to hear what you think. How can we get more people to read the newspaper? How can we get more people to understand the difference between objective, fact-based news reporting and social media posts that are nothing more than gossip and rumor?

If you have ideas, email me at the address below or give me a call at 870-423-6636.

••• Scott Loftis is editor and publisher of the Carroll County News and the Eureka Springs Times-Echo. His email address is SLoftis@CarrollCoNews. com.