President Barck Obama gets of Air Force One in Cleveland with Senator Sherrod Brown, United States Representatives Betty Sutton and Marcy Kaptur. In the early days of the internet, you would only get this through corporate news channels, but civic projects like the Observer have garnered enough credibility that we are now invited guests by the newsmakers. photo by Ivor Karabatovic
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Here at the Lakewood Observer, we leave the editorializing up to the community. We want the content to come from you, so we tend to just stay behind the scenes to make sure there is a paper every two weeks. The LO is designed to be a tool of community empowerment and our goal is to help anyone in the community to get their words into print. The paper exists to serve and inform Lakewoodites about their community- a noble cause to be sure (or at least we think so). But on Thursday, January 21st, 2010, an event transpired that threatens to alter the face of media across the country, a change so enormous, I can not even begin to understate the importance of civic journalism as we attempt to preserve some semblance of our democracy. This is not just a shameless plug to entice you to share your stories with the community by writing for the paper (although, I do highly encourage you to do so). Rather, I write to argue that we have hit a serious roadblock on the path to a more just, open, truly representative political process in this country and that you hold the key to defending and overcoming the newly unleashed, legalized version of corporately funded politicians with financially driven policy agendas.

The monumental decision to which I refer, affords corporations an unfettered right to spend money to promote their chosen candidates, and as a result, the politicians' policy decisions while in office. Ironically, the 5-4 decision handed down by the US Supreme Court hinged entirely on the first amendment right to "free speech." In effect, corporate entities are granted the same rights as an individual citizen to speak their preferences aloud and share them in the public sphere. Additional irony can be found in the majority's "free speech" argument, as in the case of corporations, their expressions of speech is anything but free. Although, the money will not be given directly to political campaigns themselves, corporations, unions, and other financial giants, are now allowed to shamelessly plug candidates and their pet issues, no matter what the cost. Coupled with their ability to finance massive independent advertising campaigns, these corporate entities also have access to TV, newspaper, magazine, radio and billboards at a level of ease most of us could never fathom. 

As the corporations begin to exercise their right to "free speech," individual voters may find themselves grasping for kernels of truth. In an age of media saturated lives, how are voters to be expected to choose between the constant pressure of corporate advertising campaigns and the rare advertisement promoting the little guy? With the help of constant repetition and high cost dramatic performances, these corporately funded campaigns bashing a candidate whose policy preferences may actually favor those of their constituents and thus challenge the company's financial interests, will undoubtedly influence the election results. 

As mentioned earlier, a key piece of these high cost campaigns will actually involve no actual monetary transactions at all, i.e. accessibility. This is where you, as citizens of Lakewood, as citizens of Ohio, as citizens of the USA, come into play. Lakewood is unique in that we already have a built in check to attempt to balance out these slippery slope scenarios that are likely to come to fruition sooner rather than later.

Enter- civic journalism.

In Lakewood (and now in a growing number of communities around Cleveland), the Observer remains an independently owned media company that depends entirely upon the community in which it is located for its content, administration and production process. The playing field is open to everyone, but only if you write it down. To some, the writing process is scary, to others, the thought of seeing their words in print and distributed to their friends and neighbors is nerve wracking. Regardless of what your concerns may be, remember that no matter what the response, you have added something to your community. You made the effort to stick your neck out and say something in a way that no one else could have ever expressed, or perhaps, in some cases, a sentiment that without you, would have never been expressed at all. You have started a dialogue and because of that, you have added a piece to the dynamic nature of the community around you.