LOCAL NEWS DAY: In the ‘artificial’ era, invest in something authentic
Today is Local News Day, and below, Citizen Government and Education Reporter Liana Hardy provides her perspective on the work she does for the Citizen. Help support that work by making a contribution here.
As I approach my three-year anniversary working for the Henrico Citizen, I have many complicated feelings about the future of local journalism: apprehension and uncertainty when it comes to things like artificial intelligence – but also renewed hope and confidence in the stamina of our local communities.
Many “big” things are headed our way: big tech, big corporations, big shakeups in how local news companies are run and how people receive their local news – and these large shifts can leave you feeling a bit small and powerless. But the core of local news has and should remain about the “little guys” – the voices in your neighborhood you often don’t hear from, the small advocacy groups working day-by-day for progress, the powerful stories that don’t make it into national news headlines.
When I began working on a longform investigative piece about data centers in Henrico, such a big and convoluted topic made me feel like I was a poorly-sheathed knight up against a goliath three-headed dragon. What do I know about the inner workings of an AI data center – I’m a humanities major!
But when working in local journalism, you quickly realize that a data center story is not just about data centers. It’s about the everyday people who live next to them, the local developer who has childhood ties to the area, the elementary school that would be right next to the site, and the local leaders making the rules of the game.
When I am on the investigative trail, I get very used to hearing the word “no” – “no comment,” “no, you can’t have that information.”
But to journalists, “no” is a big fat question mark that won’t leave you alone until you have an answer.
And recently, local readers have faced a lot of “no’s.” No local news sites without a paywall, no funding for the local newspapers that do exist, and sometimes, no local news outlets at all.
Henrico, as one Varina resident recently said, is at a crossroads: new people moving in, new developments being proposed, schools being redistricted, the county’s newest comprehensive plan being built. And for residents to lack consistent, thorough information about all of these changes should simply not be an option for Henrico.
Local news as we know it also is at a crossroads: in recent months, Richmond-area newspapers have made rounds of layoffs to their metro reporters or folded altogether, and many Virginia news sites have been bought by bigger corporations.
But with the incoming wave of artificial intelligence looming over us, now is the time not to give up on your local news and not to give up on your local community. We need to hear the voices of real people and read stories about real issues that are happening, whether reported or not.
At the Henrico Citizen, we are not a sophisticated, high-tech AI system that spouts out content. We are a handful of real people who live and work in Henrico, have face-to-face conversations with neighbors, and sit down to do the gritty, often difficult work of journalism.
We answer the calls that come into our office, sit in at school board and county meetings, and sometimes, you may see us approaching a passerby at an event to ask, “Hey, what do you think?”
In an unprecedented era of big shifts, make sure to invest in what has stayed the same: our nonpartisan, community-rooted local reporting at the Henrico Citizen.
– Liana Hardy, government and education reporter
