The Los Angeles Times recently published an op-ed by sophomore Andrew Barr, who examined the obsolescence of local news coverage for younger audiences.
In Give Them Quality and They Will Watch, Barr asserts that local news coverage would better serve his generation by adapting to the times; competing with accessibility, speed, and accuracy of news from the Internet and other forms of mass media, local news "must give us something we can't get elsewhere: in-depth coverage, expert analysis, opinions, etc.," he writes.
But instead, Barr says, local news fails to attract viewers with its "gimmicky formats, teasers, smiley twenty-something personalities, and consumer investigations (which often wreak havoc on small businesses, he says), at the expense of national and international news."
Professor of Government John Pitney Jr., who encouraged Barr's op-ed based on an assignment for his Politics and Journalism class, says, "As Andy suggests, students want quality journalism, and that's especially true of CMC students."
For Barr's full op-ed text: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-vo-barr16apr16,1,3292056.story?ctrack=2&cset=true