Killing the deer, paying the meat processors, claiming the trophies

early December local weekly newspaper: hunters' page

The weekly newspaper is a mix of advertising, sports coverage, public service information and government announcements, legal notices, and feature stories. For many years around the time of the annual firearm deer hunting season there has been a picture section with brief identification of the hunter(s) and the number of antler points on the slain animal.

Partly this public display of wild animals killed by licensed hunters is made possible by digital cameras, Internet transmission of images, and desktop editing the layout of the newspaper. In this electronic way, then, very recent events can be placed into the pages of the small print-run newspapers that are delivered to businesses and households each week.

But more than the technology of rapid reporting and citizen journalism, a more interesting question is why do readers and the newspaper editors put the stories and relatively large images in print for the two weeks starting November 15 in the state of Michigan? Not every household that receives a paper includes a current or former hunter of their own, and not every reader is familiar with the protagonists in the photos, but maybe they will have heard the family name of at least one of them. That same can be said of the editors: maybe one or two hunters will be known in some way by one or two staff at the newspaper. This social acquaintance or personal relationship does not explain the reason why the page reserved for local stories and surrounded by advertisers is devoted to the hunting season results. But as a two week event involving humans against (or in cooperation with) nature, there is an element of drama and ancient struggle implied, even if the technology and creature comforts have advanced a lot from earlier days.

In summary perhaps it is a combination of timely event (the hunting season), visual interest (pictures attract readers and require less effort than text-alone), some personal connection, and the ancient drama suggested in the frozen image that culminates the hunter's training, preparation, and execution of the chase. All these things together help the local paper to keep readers coming back for more, much to the satisfaction of the local businesses whose advertising keeps them in the eye of the community of readers.