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Mountain Valley News Column

By Nathan Hall

Before taking a community journalism class this semester and visiting a the Mountain Valley News as part of the Road Trip project, I didn’t know much about community journalism at all.  What I learned, however, surprised me.

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    I always thought of community journalism as being a boring job because often small towns just aren’t very exciting. There isn’t as much to write about in Rainsville, Alabama, as there is in New York City.

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    Once I visited the Mountain Valley News, however, I saw people who were passionate about what they were doing. Community journalism was exciting to them, and I didn’t have to be there long to realize why. Each Mountain Valley News staff member oversees the portion of the paper that interests them.

What I was most fascinated by was the level of football coverage that Mountain Valley News provides. Not only do they thoroughly cover high school football in the area. They also publish an annual high school football magazine and a weekly high school football coverage show, which airs both online and on local television. Arlan Blevins, Logan Wright, and Jordan Wilks are the men who handle all forms of football coverage at the paper. By talking to them about what they do and then watching them do it, I could tell they love what they do.

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    Seeing the high school football coverage that Mountain Valley News provides changed my perception of community journalism completely. I watched Blevins, Wright, and Wilks work, and I realized something. I realized that being a community journalist doesn’t always mean being interested in every aspect of community life.

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    Sometimes it’s as simple as loving high school football and wanting to cover it as extensively as possible. The reason the Mountain Valley News is as good as it is turns out to be simple. Everyone working on it does what he or she is passionate about. This level of specialization may not be possible at every local newspaper, but I am convinced that it is a key part of Mountain Valley News’ success.

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