Reviving Community News Columns: A Call For Community Reporters
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
This year, the Sentinel hopes to revive a section from the past: community news columns. Over 30 years ago, community reporters routinely submitted short updates from across the county. Places like New Salem and Hooker and Wildwood had their own reporters, but by the 1990s, the columns began to die out.
Numerous fans of the section have fondly remembered these columns and asked if they could be brought back. However, the feasibility all depends on the community, so we’re looking for anyone interested in representing a community to think about volunteering as a community reporter.
In the past, these columns included details like who came to visit from out of town, what neighbors did to celebrate holidays, and who was building new homes in the community. The reporters introduced new families in the area and noted birthdays, deaths, illnesses, engagements, marriages, graduations, and births. They covered community meetings, fundraisers, and events.
For example, in January 1984, Virginia Smith wrote in the Rising Fawn News, “Congratulations to Dana Dalton and George McMahan Jr., who were married at the Sulphur Springs Baptist Church Sunday, December 30. Mrs. Gertrude Hawkins of Sulphur Springs fell last week and broke her hip. She had surgery Friday at Tri-County Hospital.”
A year later, Ruth Bradford wrote in the New Salem News, “Lorena Jones and Jean McKaig were involved in an accident at the intersections of Hwys. 189 and 136 with Darla and Sherley Bradford. Glad to report there were only bruises. This is a dangerous intersection. Congratulations to the newlyweds, G.H. Morrow Jr. and Idell Newton, who were married on Jan. 5 at the New Salem United Methodist Church. Sarah and Howard Brown and children visited her mother, Frances Moore, recently.”
Flat Rock, Ala., had a community news column for a while. In 1980, Mabel Hunt wrote, “Caperton Chapel Church had their Christmas play Saturday night and their Christmas tree Sunday night. Rickey Ingram has moved over to Hooker, Ga. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Shedd and girls of Athens, Ala., are moving into our community. Sympathy to the Moore family in the passing of Mark Moore. Mark was from Flat Rock but lived in Chattanooga.”
Modern-day community news can include all of these topics and more; it’s up to you all, the community. We’re looking for volunteer reporters who are willing to get involved in the community, don’t mind doing a little bit of writing, and have a reliable way for people to contact them. Both a phone number (for calls and texts) and an email address are preferred.
The goal is that, eventually, everyone will know that they can contact the community reporter nearest to them to share personal news, but it might take some time to build this momentum. There won’t be any strict rules except that the columns focus on the community. We’d love to include the news that isn’t front page worthy but is still important to the people involved.
If we have enough volunteers who want to contribute on a weekly basis, we can include weekly updates, but if it’s easier on the reporters to send in monthly updates, we can follow a monthly rotation. It all depends on who volunteers.
Here are some of the communities that could be represented: West Brow, New Salem, Head River, Wildwood, Slygo, Hooker/299, New England, Trenton, South Dade/Rising Fawn, Davis, and New Home. To make the section a success, we need, at minimum, a reporter from South Dade, one from North Dade, one from Trenton, and one from each mountain.
The columns don’t have strict county or state boundaries. For example, Sand Mountain reporters may want to include news from nearby areas like Higdon and Bryant, Ala., or Lookout Mountain reporters may have news from Ascalon, Durham, and Hinkle, even though these are in Walker County.
If you’re interested in becoming a reporter, email editordadesentinel@gmail.com or call our office 706-657-6182, and we’ll add you to the list or answer any questions.
When looking back through these old newspapers, one notices the ephemeral yet enduring qualities of newspapers. Within a week or two of the Sentinel being released, it’s considered old news, and within a few years, most of what fills these pages is completely forgotten.
However, as the Dade County Historical Society knows, newspapers have a way of becoming very important many years later. The events, dates, and names that fill these pages are concrete markers in the sands of time, and when researching history, newspapers become invaluable. Also, these names and faces are someone’s family, and the pages of old newspapers are reminders of the many people who lived here in years gone by.
When Steve Forester was researching the CCC camp that had once been on his family’s farm in Head River, he found the most information about it in the Head River News column, proving that even the small, somewhat mundane details included in these columns are an important part of documenting history. One day, future generations might be searching for a minor detail from 2025, and they just might find answers in the new community news section.
Also, when looking back through these old examples, it’s apparent how much society has changed and yet how human nature stays the same. Our appetite for gossip hasn’t diminished, and every generation seems to have those people that everyone turns to for the real news around town. The formats of spreading news have simply changed, from newspaper columns to social media.
This experiment could reveal a few things about our current society. For example, has social media taken away the appetite for the community news section? (By the way, social media can be a great tool for the reporters to gather information.) Do people know their neighbors well enough to make this section a success? (Becoming a reporter or reading the section could also be a great way to get to know your neighbors better.)
Whether we’re able to revive this section or not, the Sentinel will report back on this experiment in a later edition.
