Media Watch column points out lack of county news

Dear Editor,

I couldn't agree more with Greg Pearson's Media Watch column in the Nov. 14 edition. The mainstream media continues to see declining viewers and readership as they continue to make the news "entertainment" and skew it with sensationalism and created drama for sweeps week. Locally, the news is concentrated mostly on Richmond and Henrico County despite Chesterfield's size, influence and importance with regards to this past election cycle for Virginia.

As the mainstream media is declining in its influence, the alternative media is rising as a place to get real time news, political commentary and coverage of issues affecting Chesterfield by people who care deeply about their community. This paradigm shift is no more evident than in the blog community that covered this past Chesterfield election from a variety of angles and viewpoints but with Chesterfield's best interest at heart. Whether the coverage came from moderate opinions,…a more Democratcentric viewpoint…or my own conservative blog, we all looked at this past election as a fundamental change in the politics of our community and one that deserves all of Virginia's serious focus as to what is coming to the future of our state. When people who have a stake in the community write about the community, it shows and can lead to more insight as to what is needed to resolve our issues for all citizens of Chesterfield.

Chesterfield is an important county in Virginia in both population and influence. If we are not going to get the respect from an increasing Richmond/Henrico County-centric media, we need to utilize alternate sources for our news, debate and influence to ensure that our voices are heard. I suggest that the Chesterfield Observer create a blogroll to list the various blogs that cover politics, human interest and things to do in Chesterfield so that the county's citizens can stay informed since they are not receiving the information they need from more conventional sources.

Jody Wilcox

Chesterfield

It's our view that Richmond gets plenty of news coverage from the daily media, but Henrico County, like Chesterfield, is underrepresented. What is needed in Chesterfield (and more so in Henrico) is more news coverage from more sources. It's our opinion that bloggers typically don't report the news - they give their opinions on the news reported by other sources. That doesn't meet the needs of original reporting. Editor