Small Town Kid In The Big City

It's always bittersweet going back to some of the smaller cities and towns I've lived in or had a past in when on assignment.  On one hand, it's always nice to catch up with some of the people I haven't connected with in a while.  On the other, I'm never there for something good.  It's always bad news that I'm covering when I'm going somewhere out of the city.

It's a tough dilemma to be a part of.  Being the small town kid in the big city has its challenges within city limits.  Many people question where I'm actually from because of how many contacts I have in rural parts of the province.  All I can say is that I'm "from Southern Alberta".  You send me out to areas I've worked or lived before and it can be a little crazy because I'll probably know someone or know someone who knows someone.

I have three bones of contention when it comes to covering stories in rural parts of our fine province.  In no particular order:

#1. Bad News Is The Only News
Why does it feel like the only time I'm in some of these centres is when it's bad news?  The only time I ever went to Vulcan for a news story?  Bunty Loose's murder.  Claresholm?  Triple-murder/suicide.  Sparwood?  Kienan Hebert's kidnapping.  There's much more to these communities but unfortunately, we only ever seem to go out there when tragedy strikes.  But do people in the "big city" truly care about those stories?  It would be an interesting discussion that's for sure.  Even something like the ongoing Events Centre debacle in Medicine Hat: should that be garnering attention in other parts of the province?

#2. How Media Is Perceived
It's always interesting being out in rural areas with the hard-nosed reporters.  Some of them expect to be treated the same way that they're treated in the city.  Unfortunately, that's not how it works.  And some of those reporters don't like it.  They want quotes NOW.  This is one area where I'll give RCMP some leeway.  A lot of the smaller detachments don't have the man-power to have a "media relations" person, let alone someone who has any sort of media training.  So they tend to keep quiet until the Calgary or Edmonton offices come in to help out.  Yet some reporters despise that.  The same can be said with how we handle area residents.  It's hard to explain but rural residents can be a little more weary of media than those in the city.  They're simply not used to the cameras and attention.  So, in many cases, you have to approach it a little differently.  Again, it's not welcome with open arms by some reporters.  And a "bad attitude" by one media outlet can ruin it, leading to a negative reputation for the entire batch.  To my fellow reporters, I'm not saying "don't do your job", I'm just saying  you might be best-served to proceed with caution as it, more times than not, will get you a lot further than throwing a little hissy fit.

#3. Take A Geography Class
This one really bugs me actually.  Let's start with general directions.  You would be shocked at the number of times I've heard someone say Medicine Hat is in "southwestern Alberta" or that Lethbridge is in "central Alberta".  So there's that.  Then there's proximity.  We've had a wild summer of weather and at one point, I remember reading multiple tweets that a tornado had touched down "in Taber".  Nope.  It was eight miles south of Taber.  Or the fire last November west of Lethbridge, when some media outlets said that the "west side of Lethbridge was being evacuated."  Nope.  Some rural residents west of Lethbridge were being forced from their homes.  Word choice seems to go out the door when it comes to rural Alberta and I'm not exactly sure why.  It always make me cringe to see us providing misleading or false information, because what it does is burns bridges as we gain a negative reputation as a whole (as much as some people don't want to think so).  An "aside" as well on this one: someone should teach a class on how to pronounce the names of some of these communities.  Boils down to doing some research but they don't call Irvine ER-VINE.  It's ER-VIN.  And Picture Butte is most certainly not PICTURE BUTT.  It's PICTURE BYOOT.

By no means am I trying to throw anyone in particular under the bus with these.  I'm simply writing about some observations noted in my time in Calgary.  It'd be interesting to see how we, as the media, would be perceived if we made a few changes to the way we covered the rural areas.  Would we lose listeners/viewers/readers by talking about tsome of the positives?  Would our coverage change if we changed the way we approached those areas?  Would we gain more respect from those rural communities?  I have no idea.  But it's certainly something I think is worthy of discussion.