About 30 years ago, my older brother ate a plate of spaghetti at an event put on by the local fire station.
He was a toddler and got spaghetti sauce all over him, my mom told me, and he's a redhead, too, so he looked extra "adorable," in her words. So adorable that a photographer from the local paper took his picture and it was on the front page the next day.
My mom said it was one of the first color editions of that paper, so all the red, both from his hair and from the sauce, made for a good front page picture. My mom of course got a ton of copies and sent them to her parents and kept a few for herself.
My mom has five kids, so she's used to the messy yet adorable things kids do, so I wonder if she would even recall Adam covered in sauce at the fire station if the local paper hadn't captured it.
I think it helped her love our little hometown even more. And people knew us. "All those redheaded babies," my elementary school nurse used to say a lot when she'd see my mom at school events.
I love it when we, The Sumter Item, get to capture special moments like that here in Sumter. A lot of those newspaper clippings will make it into scrapbooks, grandparents' mailboxes and frames above the fireplace.
I wrote a paper in college about how people who live in news deserts, which are areas without a local news source, are statistically more likely to have poor mental health.
I remember thinking that didn't make a ton of sense to me initially because I hear people say the news only headlines the bad. Murders, catastrophes, kidnappings and other heinous things.
True, those get the most clicks.
I've seen Facebook posts from people I know saying that they're taking a "social media hiatus" or a break from their phones because they're tired of reading negative things. I've felt that way before, too. I've wished that I could live out the ignorance is bliss cliche.
But what I learned from my research in college is that when communities are deprived of a local news source, then they're actually more susceptible to mental health issues because newspapers bring communities together.
A 2023 local newspaper study from America's Newspapers said that newspaper readers are actively involved in their communities. They attend local government meetings, downtown events and might even weigh in with an opinion column for an issue they care about. And newspaper readers have something to talk about with their neighbors.
Instead of running out to the mailbox with your head down hoping to avoid the Smiths next door, a newspaper reader says, "Hey, Mrs. Smith. You hear that story from the paper yesterday?" And there, they've made a friend.
I love that we, a local newspaper, highlight upcoming events. Ashley Miller's column from earlier this week said that her family used to plan out their weeks based on what the newspaper said was going on.
And the more engaged one is with their community, the happier they are. The more fire station spaghetti events they attend, the more involved they feel.
Local papers also hold decision makers accountable. We make sure your city and county councils are working above board so that you know when they're considering an ordinance that might either make you love where you live more or less.
And we help affirm the identity of a community.
I have a heavy glass paperweight that commemorates my grandmother's journalism career.
1956 - 1986 is engraved on it. An even 30 years. Those dates say a lot about her. 1956 was the year my mom was born, so Grandmother had a baby and burgeoned into journalism in the same year.
She wrote features on locals that helped affirm that Connecticut town's identity. She wrote for a magazine and not a newspaper, but my mom said that she interviewed one man who, after the interview, said their conversation was a comfort to him after having lost his wife. Grandmother made her interviewees feel comfortable. And when they're comfortable, they're themselves, and then the journalist can get to work putting facets of their identity into words.
National Newspaper Week is about you, our readers, just as much as it's about us, the newspaper.
We want to write about what matters to you, and we want to write about you.
And I love The New York Times just as much as the next reader, but you know what's especially great about your local paper? The journalists live in that community, too. I go to the same grocery stores my readers do. I get my oil changed at the same place my readers do. I'm in the same coffee shop line as my readers. And I love it.
So, thank you for your support, and Happy National Newspaper Week.
Bryn Eddy is newsletter editor and reporter for The Sumter Item.
Comments