Being at 52 degrees North is more important than you realise
Frank Skinner used to say that you can replace the word "local" in any sentence with the word "crap" and it would still make sense.
I think what he was getting at, in between football and sex references, was that the more important anything is the more national or international it becomes.
So why, when we can get access to news from around the globe instantly, would we be be interested in what local papers or local websites like mine have to say?
Even if you're interested it can require the tenacity of a American TV cop solving a crime his way (and if the pen-pushers at City Hall don't like it...), skim reading page after page - or on the internet clicking 'back' after every time you land on a page about Birmingham, Alabama "the magic city".
Soon though, it'll all get easier. Geotagging is taking off (it's basically marking information on the web with Longitude and Latitude) so your browser will know where everything is in relation to you.
Just as how you'd be annoyed to be woken up and told that a house across town was on fire, but pretty peeved if no-one roused you if it was yours - you'll get the news scaled in importance by distance. Factor in the technology to filter out everything involving Natasha Kaplinsky, television chefs and rugby (I'm working on it) and you'll never need to scream with frustration at the news again.
In journalism they're using the term "hyperlocal", it just means being able to get to what you care about - it may turn into a confusing flood of information you didn't know you wanted, but there's no reason it should. Don't forget you can always turn it off.
The future is more local that you ever imagined, perhaps local comedian Frank Skinner won't be as dismissive.
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