News-media roundup: Ark. sunshine; Okla. local-news study; week-long series on Neb. paper's role in community

Open-government advocates in Arkansas quashed efforts to carve large loopholes in the state's Freedom of Information Act, in a special session Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called to do that and to make secret information about her security arrangements. The latter measure passed. Rejected were open-records exemptions for attorney-prepared documents and the "deliberative process" leading to "governmental decisions and policies" and attorney-prepared documents, and a change that would have "made it harder for people to recover legal fees for lawsuits filed under" the act, reports Neal Farley of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Another rejected bill "would have shielded 'records reflecting communications between the governor or his or her staff and the secretary of a cabinet-level department'." The outcome showed "the power of citizen action," writes longtime FOI leader Sonny Albarado, editor of the Arkansas Advocate.

Counties in study (To enlarge the map, click on it.)

"Oklahomans statewide primarily rely on social media and local word of mouth for local news," and "rarely subscribe to local newspapers," media and political-science professors say in a study report after interviewing 352 news consumers in seven diverse counties in the state. The study is the "first qualitative observational study of both news deserts and under-served metro communities statewide in Oklahoma," says the Oklahoma Media Center, a nonprofit that funded the work by Rosemary Avance, assistant professor in the media school at Oklahoma State University, and Allyson Shortle, associate professor of political science and co-founder of the University of Oklahoma’s Community Engagement and Experiments Lab. They say "Small-town residents express more trust in local news when a local person is in charge of it."

"Final edititon of the Norfolk Daily News," trumpeted the main headline in the Aug. 17 edition of the Nebraska paper. "Or is it?" a subhead teased. Under it Kent Warnecke wrote, "The primary role of a headline is to attract a reader’s attention. Chances are, the headline on this story did just that. To be clear, this is NOT the final edition of the Norfolk Daily News. The Daily News will be published tomorrow, next week and into the future. But that isn’t the case elsewhere in the nation, and, as a result, it’s not an exaggeration to say our freedom as citizens is at risk." The story was part of a week-long "Protect the Pillar" series, referring to the news media as the fourth pillar of democracy. One story noted the demise of 16 Nebraska newspapers since 2004. Looks like good material for National Newspaper Week, Oct. 1-7.