Local News Can Be Global

Former Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill used to say “all politics is local.”

When it comes to journalism, I think, the opposite is true. All journalism should be global. That is, a good story should not be limited by geography. A good story should be of interest to viewers (or readers) regardless of where they live or their local circumstances.

Good journalism should move people, it should inspire them and it should touch their hearts and make them feel something. It can, at times, even motivate people to action; but certainly it should motivate people to think.

Local news is fine, but a good local story will resonate with everyone, not just those who live in the community in which it happened. After all, you don’t have to live in North Dakota for the movie Fargo to resonate with you.

When you create a story, if you make it character driven, as opposed to ‘event’ driven, then you can transcend the boundaries of locality and create a tale that will resonate with millions of people, and make a story that they will soon not forget.

Take a look at this lovely story by Itay Hod. He’s a journalist with KPIX, the CBS station in San Francisco. Even though it’s a local story, CBS ran it on their national network news because, even though local, it transcends locality.

I would also add that he reported, shot, scripted, tracked and edited this on his own, as an MMJ. And it was all done on an iPhone. Itay is a graduate of ‘the bootcamp’.