We have all recently had the opportunity to vote in the elections for Police and Crime Commissioners, although of course, many didn’t. The following day Twitter was rife with those declaring they hand’t voted, or had . Reasons for not voting included something along the lines of:
- I didn’t know enough about the candidates.
- I didn’t get anything through the door about the candidates.
- I couldn’t find out anything about the candidates online.
- I wasn’t that interested.
- I wanted independent candidates and none were offered in my area, they were all political and I don’t think policing should be that closely connected to policing.
Whatever we think about those reasons, it got me wondering: If people didn’t feel that the usual news media was offering them enough information about candidates, what were hyperlocal news publishing sites doing? One case in point is which in the first few words linked to the very useful . There is then some quick profiling of the candidates, and useful links. It’s not lengthy or specifically in depth but does offer the information clearly and most importantly gives the reader places to find out more information.
I’m wondering how many other hyperlocals covered the PCC elections in this way, and how this compares to coverage in local mainstream media?