‍The author of this blog, Jeff Smith, is a dedicated community partner and founder of the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID). Jeff has supported the Urban Core Collective through his news monitoring project. His efforts provide invaluable insights into how local media narratives shape public opinion, particularly around our focus areas. We are grateful for Jeff’s commitment to amplifying the voices and experiences of BIPOC communities in Grand Rapids. His work informs our strategies and strengthens our collective efforts to create a more just and equitable society. Take a moment to read Jeff’s words about the impactful work he’s been doing.

-Raven and Alisha, UCC Co-Directors

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News monitoring is a tactic I am using to assist the organizing work of the Urban Core Collective (UCC). 

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One aspect of the work that I have been doing with UCC is monitoring the local commercial news media. The focus areas for the news monitoring have been to look at the coverage around the issues areas that UCC is working on – Education Justice, Public Safety, Climate Justice, and Democracy.

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Monitoring the local news provides us with an understanding of how public opinion is being formed in the greater Grand Rapids area. The narratives that the local news presents are often not reflective of various communities in the greater Grand Rapids area, particularly  Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) residents that UCC predominately works alongside. News monitoring work is also useful in creating and disseminating counter-narratives, specifically narratives that center the lived experience of the BIPOC community in this area.

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Since January of this year, I have been monitoring coverage shared by four news agencies–MLive, WoodTV8, WZZM13, and WXMI17. Here is a snapshot of the data I’ve gathered from the four news agencies I have been monitoring from January 1st through July 20th:

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As you can see from the data, policing/public safety dominates local news coverage in comparison to the areas of public education, climate justice, and local democracy. There are several reasons why crime coverage is far more likely to be covered than the other three topic areas.

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• It is easier to produce crime coverage since it is already a packaged story driven by images and narrative. Flashing police lights and police tape make for stories that are easy to fill in the blanks.
• The local news media relies almost exclusively on the GRPD or the local judicial system as sources of information on crime and public safety.
• The local news media rarely asks probing questions or investigates the claims from the police or the courts, especially since they have internalized the belief that the police and the courts actually serve the public interest.
• It is also worth pointing out that in all 313 policing/public safety stories over the past six months, there have only been 8 stories about community-based groups doing crime prevention work. Lastly, of all these 313 stories that center mostly on crime, there were only 10 stories about the GRPD actually preventing crime, which means in most of the stories, the GRPD showed up after a crime had been committed. This should tell us something about the real function of the GRPD.

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Beyond the data, it is also important to look at the kinds of stories that are shared and the narratives that the local commercial news media utilizes. In the coverage of Climate Justice (32 stories total), one of those stories utilized the phrase climate change. There was one story where the phrase “climate-related phenomenon” was used, and the term “global warming” was used only once. This means that in the bulk of the climate coverage – which centered mostly on the mild winter and the increased heat in May and June – there was rarely any direct correlation between the weather and climate change.

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On the matter of local news reporting on the Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS), while there are more stories on this topic than on climate or local elections, much of the coverage is still not useful for the public’s understanding of GRPS policy decisions.

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The GRPS coverage was a mix of stories about school snow days, school closings, and a specific program or project involving the GRPS. There were very few stories about GRPS policy decisions and even less about community organizing efforts to improve the Grand Rapids Public School system.

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The decision of local news agencies to focus more on feel-good stories as opposed to centering GRPS policy and budget decisions doesn’t promote community engagement. If we want people to be informed and involved in the Grand Rapids Public Schools, the local commercial news media needs to spend more time investigating and reporting on how school policies impact outcomes for students and families.

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Local election coverage has also been limited, with 42 stories combined from all four news agencies monitored since January 1st. MLive has provided most of the relevant election stories for the August 6th Primary. Still, even most of those stories are limited to background information on the candidates for Grand Rapids and Kent County races. MLive has also been asking candidates the same four questions for every candidate, with no follow-up questions, no verification, and no fact-checking on what candidates are saying. Ultimately, while local news reporters act as stenographers, the public loses out by not getting more information on candidate platforms, the critical issues facing this community, or campaign finance data.

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The public deserves better news coverage, the kind of investigative news coverage that can make an impact on community engagement, and community-based solutions that can make a difference in people’s lives.