By Luke Hampl and Cam McDonald -Staters Union

Local Government is influenced by many different entities, one of which is the media. After asking several people who work in our local boys state government to see what they think of what the media does and what it should do for our local government. 

…a majority agrees that it should be The People who have the final say.

Everyone interviewed agrees that the media has a role in our government, but not everyone agrees on what that role should be. Joey Martin, a Federalist from Patton County who is running for governor, believes that the media’s role is to be there to give people an accurate view of what the people in the government are doing, and the majority of people seem to agree. When asked who should decide what direction the local government should take, a majority agrees that it should be the people who have the final say. Abe Frederick, a current Senator from Seitz County says that while the government and the media may have an influence, people should have the final say. 

However, some think that the issues around here aren’t being helped by any party and that the media should help show the issues to more people. City council member Vinnie Scirelli thinks that some real issues aren’t being shown by the media and that they are overreacting about minor things. Tristan Vandervelde of the Department of Economics, Elijah Self of the Department of Humanities, and Mason Smith of the Department of Natural Resources all agreed that the role of the media in small government is to just cover the news. These three agreed that the media has a major role in local government, and with a little more honesty and transparency it can do the most good for the people. We can all agree that the media somehow influences the local government, but the question we ask the readers to ponder is how?