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News has been around since civilization itself with an
innate human tendency to want to know things. Blame it
on the brain’s outright disgust with holes in
information which has an evolutionary root. That may
noise in the bushes may just make you lunch…better to
know what it is. Maybe the need for human news is an
extension of that noise emanating from the bush. Either
way, it’s firmly embedded in our culture and no matter
what means of distribution we currently fancy, the basic
definition of news and local news are about the same as
verbal village update on what’s going on from 10,000
years ago. Let’s dig a little deeper to find out what
causes a piece of information to make that transition
into the realm of news.
We loved the series Rome on HBO a few years back. Part
of what make it great viewing aside from the visceral
elements was a look into the daily lives re-created of
ancient Rome. One of the best images was of the Roman
citizen who would give the recent news updates,
senatorial and sublime, verbally on the streets. He was
heavy set with a flowing Roman robe and tended to
exaggerate and embellish this news delivery with poetic
punctuation. Just one more reason Rome was so cool.
It’s was also interesting to see news delivery with our
ancient (2000 years counts, right) ancestors. The
availability of news may be broader now but the intent
and goal was the same.
Whether then or now, what makes information news? We
could be simplistic and just say that news information
new to the viewer but that misses a critical component.
News is the information that not only is new to the
viewer but it’s information that adds value. This is
the difference between the outcome of the local election
and the count of street signs on a given road. One
adds value to your attained knowledge of the world while
the other is minutia…what the brain was designed through
evolution to actively filter out and ignore. Different
people get different value from different kinds of
information and to avoid using different one more time,
let’s think of your uncle who only reads the sports page
or your sister who religiously absorbs the international
news. Everyone has a different set of rules as to the
information they value and we mentioned, value is the
key determining factor. What about local news? Good
question.
Back to our simplistic view of world, local news is just
information that we value originating or pertaining to
our locality. The real question here is the definition
of local in local news. Is it our city? Our State?
Our neighborhood? Do we differentiate based on zip
codes? The answer is yes for all the above to some
extent. There is news or valued information pertaining
to all different levels of locality and all are
important at various times.
How does the Zipper local news and local gossip app look
at the question of valued information? Very simply
(continuing with our theme). We let the audience
decide. The local people decide what is valued
information both by providing the local info and by
rating and viewing it. Ultimately, the definition of
local news is greatly expanded because of this and you,
the viewer get to decide. Granted, there will be the
flotsam and jetsam that other’s might find to be news
(really? Justin Bieber hair salon??) but that’s
probably really important to someone (translated as
10-14 year old girls). The flipside to this is that you
will find much more in-depth and timely information on
your particular valued local information. There in lies
the benefit to the Zipper local news app. It can be all
things to all people. All on your smart phone. We
define that as something valuable.
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