Information overload, as well as the spread of misinformation, has ballooned to new heights in the digital age.
Each time we open our social media accounts, or use a search engine, we’re flooded with articles and photos on topics ranging from pets to politics.
While it can be tough to sometimes determine what’s real and doctored, there’s one source the public falls back to when it comes to finding out the truth: local newspapers.
The methods of how we consume our news has morphed over time, but the foundations of journalism still stand strong. It’s been said by others in the newspaper industry, our “basic value proposition still holds: people need to know what’s going on in their communities.”
One of our greatest duties at The Republic — and for all local newspapers — is to act as a watchdog over public offices, and fight for transparency in government.
While the stories aren’t always action-packed, attending and reporting on events such as county and city meetings is vital to our community.
Without journalists, and the work they do, our community runs the risk of having the information they need on a daily basis. Thankfully, two Indiana laws help us hold our officials accountable: the Indiana Open Door Law and the Indiana Public Records Act.
The Open Door Law states government agencies must hold official meetings of a majority of their governing body, such as council or board meetings, publicly.
Indiana’s law does allow public agencies to meet in private under certain circumstances to discuss items such as misconduct of employees, or purchase of land, up to the time a contract to purchase has been issued, among a list of permitted closings. No votes or decisions may be made in closed sessions.
While these meetings are allowed to be closed, journalists pursue followups to ascertain what is happening and report it to their readers.
The Access to Public Records Act also helps protect the public, as it provides that citizens have the right to access information regarding the government and the official acts of public officials and employees.
The act covers all public records of a city or county agency, including writings, reports, maps, tape recordings, and photographs. Journalists use those records to fact-check and research stories and identify trends in a community.
Each year, the news industry celebrates the importance of access to public information through Sunshine Week, which starts today. The first Sunshine Week kicked-off on March 16: the birthday of James Madison, father of the Constitution and a key advocate of the Bill of Rights.
It is no secret that newsgathering and print journalists are struggling to continue to provide complete local coverage of their communities as more and more readers expect free information online rather than paying for the work journalists do every day.
But some news organizations, including AIM Media, which owns The Republic, believe solid community journalism covering a local community is vital to the future of the community and to democracy as a whole.
