By Andrea Arens

I’m a special education teacher.

I’ve been teaching students with severe trauma and behavior disabilities for more than 15 years, but my first love, my first degree was in Journalism from Columbia College Chicago. I interned at NBC Chicago and watched in amazement as Jerry Springer was put on the 10 p.m. news in an effort to increase viewership and ratings. One of my idols Carol Marin resigned, and the entire newsroom was abuzz with disdain.

I finished my internship, graduated, and never sought a job in journalism. Everything I was taught about the craft, I questioned after that, and so I went seeking employment elsewhere in public relations and eventually obtained my master’s in special education years later.

When I ran for a trustee position, I thought I was just desiring an opportunity to be more involved in my community and disseminate information.

I lost that election but was offered another opportunity to report local news; bringing me back to my roots and an opportunity to disseminate that information from a different perspective. I was offered the editor position just a few months later.

In a time when there’s bias everywhere and corporations control the content, my highly understaffed little weekly strives every day to report the facts in an unbiased and fair manner. Both the northern Kankakee County and southern Will County editions of The Vedette are published 52 weeks a year for a subscription of under $50. We try to cover all the local taxing body happenings, along with local news and features. Many times we just can’t get to it all, but other times when we do cover something controversial or too close to home, we’re criticized.

It’s not about ratings, or clicks, or increasing viewership for sensationalism. It’s about reporting the facts, the things that matter, to everyone in our small towns in these communities. It’s about connecting people to their communities, and keeping them informed of what’s happening.

I’m proud to say that’s the dream I had for journalism 27 years ago, and I’m even more proud I get the chance to keep that dream alive daily.

Support your local news this National Newspaper Week. If little local weekly newspapers didn’t exist, you could be getting your news off Facebook.