Where do you get your news? This is a question I have been randomly asking of my Arlington friends, acquaintances, and strangers. And the results have been very interesting. How would you answer that question? 

In this unscientific survey, the answers reflected a general level of anxiety. Many folks felt it necessary to confess that they thought their “news routine” was somewhat incomplete or inadequate. Asking these questions, and entering into conversations with people, was an education for me in many ways. 

The “where” part of the question led to a recitation of sources – many initial answers were somewhat expected, referring to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. But as conversations developed, the discussion became broader in nature. The questions shifted to the “how” they find their sources. While some people still hold on to their print subscriptions, a vast majority followed their news on-line.  

A surprising (to me) number of people also cited TV news and radio. And of course, in this day and age, people are getting their news on social media and podcasts. One person somewhat sheepishly confessed that they get a lot of their news on Instagram. I enjoyed the give-and-take of these discussions, including a good question directed back at me: What do you mean by the word “news”? As someone who started his newspaper reading habit at the age of ten, reading the New York Daily News solely for the sports news and the comics, this question about “news” opened up another question that I used: if you read a daily newspaper, which section do you read first? 

In my conversations, I also tried to drill down into the subject of local news. Since this column seems to be taking on the character of asking rhetorical questions, let me pose two more questions for you: where do you get your local news…and how do you access that news? 

These discussions activated my curiosity about the history of accessing news in Arlington. One of the best places to find Arlington history comes from the annual Arlington Historical Society Magazine. I found a terrific article, from 1959, entitled “A History of Printing in Arlington (Alexandria) County” by Robert Anderson. The article went all the way back to 1671, when Virginia’s royal governor, Sir William Berkeley, wrote in a report back to England that he was thankful there were no printing presses in the colony, stating that “learning has brought disobedience ….and printing has divulged them. God keep us from both!” 

Fortunately, printing presses became somewhat common in Virginia a century later. Locally, by 1885 the Town of Falls Church had an independent newspaper, followed by printed news created by the small villages that were getting established in the County. I was able to find a copy of a four-page newspaper from 1903, entitled “Barcroft News”.  The front page consists mainly of personal news about various residents, though it did contain a notice about possible legal action to be taken by unhappy residents: “There is some talk of the property owners getting out an injunction restraining electric road surveyors. So many have been about these diggings lately that they are trampling the crops.” It is not known whether any legal action was taken, as the Barcroft News folded after six months. 

Over the decades, Arlington County residents have relied on a number of different newspapers for local news. Robert Anderson’s 1959 article ended with a reference to the Northern Virginia Sun. Maybe someone some day will update that article to take us to the 21st century, as our sources of local news keep shifting.  

Let me leave you with one more question: are your sources trustworthy? To explore that question, I suggest you go to the Falls Church News Press website, and take a look at the September 18 article by Nick Gatz (“Profit-Driven Algorithms Are Killing Our Society.”) It is an informative review of the dangers inherent in our digital town square. Between reading that article, and the various responses I have received to my pesky questions, one thing is clear— being informed is no easy task.