What do national elections mean for local news?

As a local newspaper focused on covering what’s happening in Wayne County, every week we make the decision to exclude coverage of what’s happening elsewhere — in the state, across the nation and around the world. We know you have plenty of options for reading nonlocal news coverage, and so we don’t need to pretend to be yet another source for the same information.

But that approach also creates a disconnect; as I write this the day after a national election, I know that many of our neighbors and readers are actively processing the results of those races. Some are pleased, others are disappointed, upset or scared, and many are perhaps wondering how they will affect local life. As journalists, we certainly wonder how increasing calls to discount our work as inherently fake will affect our ability to keep the community informed.

Indeed, the things that happen on the national stage can make a big difference in our life together in Wayne County and in our personal lives, whether it’s the health of the economy or changes in environmental policy, access to health care or the tone of public debate. Those things flow down to the local level one way or another, impacting our readers, and so we have a responsibility to acknowledge that in our reporting where appropriate. 

Our primary focus, though, will continue to be on the stories, news, decisions and conversations that have residents of Wayne County and all of our respective communities at the center. If we’re not reporting directly on something happening elsewhere, it doesn’t mean we’re ignoring it, but we’re likely working to understand it through the lens of how it affects people living here.

A danger of long and contentious election cycles is that they can encourage us to forget the nuances of living in diverse, complicated local communities with no singular solution to a given problem. When it comes down to a vote for governor, congressional representative or president, everything is often distilled down to us versus them, my candidate versus your candidate, my values versus your values.

But we know that day to day life in a place like Wayne County doesn’t work like that. Water and sewage treatment, trash pickup, and zoning decisions aren’t partisan matters. The things we need to understand and work on to make our life here together better, whether it’s related to education, public safety, addiction and health, housing, job creation or just how to help out someone in our neighborhood, don’t come with either-or choices.

Majority rule is the way of the election process, but it’s not the way we make sure that we’re thriving as a county, honoring our differences, and taking care of all of the people who live here and the generations to come. That requires more of us, and certainly more effort, engagement, compassion and patience than an election allows for.

So whatever happens on the national level, we will continue to tell the stories of the people of Wayne County, Indiana. We’ll continue to report on local government meetings, commissions and boards to bring context and accountability. We’ll continue to celebrate the achievements of our athletes, innovators, teachers and leaders. We’ll continue trying to amplify important voices that aren’t always heard. And we’ll continue to help our readers stay informed and connected, so that when opportunities to solve a problem or make real progress come along, we can seize them. Together.