As a country journalist the most important aspect of my job is to tell local stories with accuracy and clarity.
With so many news offerings across all media platforms, people have access to sufficient information about wider state, national and international stories.
Therefore it is crucial to portray local happenings, personalities, events, council decisions and sports.
This is what readers come to a local paper for and if you are not relevant at the local level people will lose interest.
Nevertheless, these local stories should always be placed in a wider context, with reference to similar issues affecting communities Australia wide.
When a larger story does effects local residents it is important focus on the aspects that have the most relevance to your community.
A country journalist must attempt to distill complex issues and figure out what matters most to their readership in an economic, social and political sense.
To do this you must find local people, businesses, schools and organizations that the issue directly effects and seek out their opinions and perspectives.
It is also important to be part of the “bush telegraph” to tell stories about local people, their achievements and the area’s history; the smaller stories that would not get play in larger newspapers but are nevertheless important to the local community.
In short, local relevance is crucial to country newspapers but as a journalist you should always see how local issues can be placed within a larger context in order to further inform and educate your readers.