Role of Community Led Independent Media in Sustaining Co-ops and Building Communities

In Grocery Story, I think Jon Steinman makes a good point by bringing up how The Arrow (a community newspaper) was crucial in Nelson, British Columbia to maintaining the life of the local food cooperative and to strengthening the local community.

Jon Steinman wrote:Helping support the rise of the region’s counterculture was The Arrow, a community newspaper that provided alternative perspectives not represented in mainstream local news. Food was a prominent topic of discussion in the paper, which often included concerns about the area’s chain grocers and their lack of natural and vegetarian foods.

I think that such local community-led media is important for keeping these projects alive, because the issues being discussed and shared arise from those living within the that locality. I think that this kind of independent media is also crucial, because it most likely prevents the message from getting diluted or lost in other types of media. Also, I find that local news is more engaging, because it is more relevant and applicable to my daily life than more distanced sources of information.

I’m inclined to agree. A lot of big ag has media mouth pieces. We need more local and permit sources.