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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 22 ,2 01 8 | 38 Join the Giving Movement!! Tuesday, November 27th is Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is a global movement for giving and volunteering, that takes place each year the day after Black Friday. After a day of chaotic shopping for all your holiday wishes, Giving Tuesday represents all that is good in our community and the world at large. It is a day for everyone to come together for the greater good and support those in need. Kerr Street Mission is excited to be part of the Giving Tuesday movement again this year as we look to our generous Oakville community for their continued support. It is our hope this year on Giving Tuesday - November 27th that many will embrace this great cause. We hope you will join us in our efforts to help bring comfort and joy to Oakville families in need by supporting our Christmas Wonders and Beyond program. All donations received on Giving Tuesday will go to support this very worthy program. Please consider one of our levels of giving: A few of our generous KSM neighbours have also joined the Giving Tuesday crusade and will have special donation boxes at their locations if you would like to join the movement and donate to Kerr Street Mission on this day. Please be sure to visit: Boon Burger Cafe, Lole, Longos (@ 469 Cornwall rd), Sandwich Society just to name a few. Lets all join the movement and give generously! Please give online @ kerrstreet.com/christmaswonders or by phone. Kerr Street Mission 485 Kerr Street, Oakville P: 905.845.7485 Charitable Reg. No. 897106845RR0001 It's about trust. Our rela-It's about trust. Our rela-I tionship with our readers is built on transparency, hon- esty and integrity. As such,esty and integrity. As such,e we have launched a trust initiative to tell you who we are and how and why we do what we do. This article is part of that project. Discussions about local journalism used to be about scoops, breaking news and deadlines. These days the debate is littered with terms like local news pover- ty, news deserts and ghost newspapers - a term recent- ly coined by U.S. research- ers to describe publications so diminished by layoffs they cannot adequately cover their communities. The numbers are sober- ing: The Local News Map, a crowd-sourced tool that tracks changes to local news outlets, documents the loss of 260 local newspa- pers, online news sites and radio and television outlets in 190 communities be- tween 2008 and Oct. 1 of this year. Community newspapers that publish fewer than five times per week have been hardest hit - 189 have ceased to exist over the past de- cade. Another 74 news out- lets implemented service cuts ranging from shorter television newscasts to re- duced newspaper publica- tion schedules. Overall, local news out- lets closed at almost three times the rate that new ones opened. While the statistics are startling, they don't convey what really happens when a local newsroom is cut to the bone or shut down. The loss of timely, verified, indepen- dently produced news has real-life consequences. A Scientific American report earlier this year, for instance, offered a concrete illustration of why local health news matters. In the article, U.S. epidemiolo- gists worried aloud that the disappearance of so many local newspapers means re- searchers are losing an im- portant early warning sys- tem for the outbreak and spread of infectious diseas- es. Closer to home, stories that showcase how news or- ganizations hold power ac- countable are a staple of journalism awards ceremo- nies. Recent National Newspaper Award winners in the local reporting cate- gory range from an account of the shocking living stan- dards of marginalized peo- ple in Kingston to a series of stories in the St. Catharines Standard about the impact of child abuse by a Roman Catholic priest in the Niag- ara area. In addition to monitor- ing power, local news equips citizens with a shared set of facts and infor- mation so they can act col- lectively and participate in decision making - a city council decision to build a four-lane expressway at thefour-lane expressway at thef end of your street should never come as a surprise. Yet municipal officialsYet municipal officialsY say it is increasingly diffi- cult to get news about city affairs out to residents and warn that rumour, specula- tion and deliberately mis- leading information circu- lated online by vested inter- ests will fill the space for- merly occupied by local news. Local news organiza- tions also keep people safe during emergencies: A Conference Board of Cana- da review of how Calgary responded to the massive 2013 flood highlighted the essential role of local media in reassuring the public and keeping people in- formed. One official told theformed. One official told thef report's authors that media were as important to the city's emergency response "as police, fire and EMS." Whether they realize it or not, local news helps peo- ple understand and navi- gate the local economy. Sto- ries about house prices and vacancy rates inform buy- versus-rent decisions. Headlines about the local unemployment rate matter if you are thinking of searching for a new job. Transit reporters' sto- ries on the location of new subway, bus or rapid transit lines can affect house pric- es, commuting decisions and the location of new businesses. Education cov- erage keeps parents in- formed about the latest is-formed about the latest is-f sues in local schools. Local news also matters because it can do harm: Re- porting gone wrong can ste- reotype, misrepresent or underrepresent minority groups and the most vul- nerable people in a commu- nity. It can result in uncritical boosterism for local busi- ness and other elites. And it can act as a bully pulpit for the loudest voices while other perspectives lan- guish. At its best though, local news builds community by making it possible for peo- ple to collectively share mo- ments both good and bad. After last year's deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque, for instance, sto- ries across the country doc- umented vigils held to sup- port local Muslim commu- nities and denounce Isla- mophobia. If you didn't attend the vigil in your area you could still share in the moment of solidarity by reading about it in the local paper or watching a local television newscast. In the United States, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Com- munities in a Democracy summed up the importance of local news when it con- cluded that information is "as vital to the healthy func- tioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools, and public health." The authors could have added that clean air, safe streets, good schools and pubic health owe much to local journalism. April Lindgren leads the Local News Research Pro- ject at Ryerson University's School of Journalism. She can be reached at april.lindgren@ryerson.ca. We welcome your ques- tions and value your com- ments. Email our trust committee at trust@met- roland.com. OPINION DEEP NEWSROOM CUTS HURT COMMUNITIES: REPORT PUBLIC HEALTH AND NEWSPAPERS GO HAND-IN-HAND, WRITES APRIL LINDGREN APRIL LINDGREN Column