The Negative Effects of Boosterism

How Journalists Undermine the County’s Problems by Focusing on only

the positive aspects of the Community

Teresita Blanco

This paper is a textual analysis of the Burlington County Times. This New Jersey

newspaper is the only newspaper in this county. It serves a vital role in interpreting the

community for those who live there. This research will explore how and why journalists choose

specific sources. This exploration will be done through a network analysis of three journalists.

This paper will also explore the types of issues this newspaper considers important. As of now,

the main problem in this county is an ever growing aging population. This problem is

undermined through Boosterism. Instead of addressing the problems through objectivity, the

journalists in this newspaper focus on the elderly who still contribute to the economy of this

county. By focusing on only old people that can work, the newspaper stigmatizes those who can

no longer work. It reinforces the materialistic notion that one’s value is determined by the

capital they create. Another important aspect of Boosterism is its competitive aspect. Due to

scarcity, counties and cities compete with one another for resource. Through Competitive

Boosterism, the elite work together with the media to boost the reputation of the county.

Keywords: boosterism, capitalism, development, economy, Facebook, foreclosure,

individualism, landlord, middle class, obituary, reverse mortgage, Penguin Update, social

classification, Social Security, source, whiteness

Introduction

It was the fall of 2014. Fernado Blanco had been flown Trenton for business. It was the

weekend and Blanco felt like touring the place. Usually, his boss man provided him with the

company car. His boss must have felt that Blanco needed a bit of exercise. For that reason, he

provided Blanco with a bike. Blanco took the opportunity to learn how to ride a bike. After

trying and failing 5 times. He resolved to take a walk and check out the neighborhood. While

crossing the St. Calhoun River, he grimly noted the numerous giant spiders and their webs

clinging to the metallic green frame of the bridge. A blue eyed, little blonde girl was walking by

the other side of the bridge. She was charioting 10 golden retrievers. The girl stopped for a

moment looking at Blanco. When she got a good look at him, she shrugged her shoulders before

being dragged away by her golden retrievers. This was his 7th

trip to New Jersey. He was already

used to being stared at by the locals. While he continued on his way, he thought: There are not a

lot of brats in this place.

Burlington County has a large aging population. The Burlington County Times created a

special report to address this issue. The newspaper describes it as an aging Boom. The old people

featured there are waiting longer and longer to retire (Steven Hart,2015). The 2010 Census data

shows that 20 percent of the residents in this county are over 60 (New Jersey 2010, Issue August

2012). Through Boosterism, the newspaper is downplaying the problem. Boosterism is a relative

new concept. The term refers to newspapers writing hyper positive articles. This paper proposes

a solution to Boosterism. The research will use textual analysis on the Burlington County Times

newspaper. Be reading this news as text, this research helps to weed out the Boosteristic

tendencies of this newspaper. Boosterism news dictates to the audience what they should aspire

to become (Gutche 2015). When applied to aging, Boosterism encourages the elderly to remain

in the workforce. The paper will start with the background of the Newspaper. It will give a

generic overview of the demography, history, audience and issues. The paper will analyze the 3

main characteristics of Boosterism. The second describes the methods employed in this paper,

followed by a textual analysis. The paper will end with the results and suggestions.

Background

This section has the background information for the Burlington County Times. It includes

a brief history of the place and a comprehensive summery of the demography, the mapping and

local history. It also describes its audience, and history of the news outlet. It also has the

background on one of the important issues being covered by the newspaper as well as the

network analysis.

A-Demographics

Burlington County is the largest county in New Jersey. It’s part of the Delaware Valley

area. It is located east of the Delaware River (Lurie and Viet, 2012). The US Census estimates

that it has a population of 449,722. The official numbers of the 2010 are 448,734. It had

population increase of six percent since the year 2000. The rate of increment has been decreasing

since1980. The majority of the people living there are white (US Census 2010). In 2010, the

percentage of whites was 78 percent. It went down to 74 percent. With 16 percent, blacks are the

largest minority in the County (US Census 2010). The number increased to 17 percent based on

2013 estimates. Hispanics made up six percent of the population, making them the second largest

minority group. It went up to seven percent by 2013 (Burlington County, New Jersey Quickfacts,

2013). The Asian population made up four percent of the population. Less than one percent is

Native Americans or Pacific Islanders. About two percent were other races and another two

percent listed more than one race (New Jersey 2010, Issue August 2012). Based on the 2013

numbers, there were about 177,026 households (Burlington County, New Jersey Quickfacts,

2013). According to the 2010 Census data, the average household size was 2.65, while the family

size had 3.14 members (US Census 2010).

About 77 percent still had ownership of their home from 2009 to 2013. The medium price

of those homes was $252,500. The per-capital income was $36,835 and the household income

was $78,446. So far, only 5 percent live below the poverty line (Burlington County, New Jersey

Quickfacts, 2013). From there households, 24 percent had people living within who were

younger than 18. There were 58 percent of married couples living together. About 10 percent

was a single female household. The remainder 28 percent of the population was in an

arrangement that the census did not consider a family (Burlington County, New Jersey

Quickfacts, 2013). Of this lot, 23 percent were living alone and the remainder was living with a

person who was older than 65. In Burlington County, the medium age is 37. It shows that the

population is aging. As of 2013, only 22 percent of the population was younger than 18. The

population over 65 was 15 percent (Burlington County, New Jersey Quickfacts, 2013). These

numbers were in par with the overall New Jersey population. There were 100 females for every

97 males in the County (Burlington County, New Jersey Quickfacts, 2013).

B-Dominant History of Burlington County

The history of this county is a bit fragmented in the Government website. Each

department has its own history. The history section also highlights museums and articles

dedicated to minorities in history. This minority history focuses on the Powhatan history,

Women history and Black History (Burlington County Government Website History). According

to the official history the City called Burlington was founded in 1677. It was the capital of West

Jersey. The history then mentions all the nice places people can visit. It focuses on attracting

tourists. It also mentioned the underground railroads. It also mentioned areas to learn of women

history (Burlington County Government Website History). One of the historic women mentioned

was Varina Davis. She was the First Lady of the Confederates. There were only two historic

minority women mentioned. One was Charity Still, a famous slave woman who was the mother

of William Still. He founded the Underground Railroad. The other one was Indian Ann Roberts.

She was famous for making baskets (Burlington County Government Website History).

C-Colonial to late 19th

Century History Burlington County

In Treton, there was evidence of human habitation as old as 3,000 years ago.

Archeologist found in the Woodland area, Late Archaic pottery. These pots were discovered in

the Abbot Farm in 1937. Some pottery dated as far as 12,000 years ago (Lurie and Viet, 2012).

The Europeans started in New Jersey in 1609. What later became known as Burlington County

used to be part of The West Jersey (Lurie and Viet, 2012). During 1676, there were major land

disputes. As early as 1640s, the Dutch immigrants from New York were having conflicts with

the Native Americans (Lurie and Viet, 2012). By the time the English arrived, all the fight had

been taken out of them by the Dutch and the Swedes (Lurie and Viet, 2012). By the 1700s, there

was an ethnic and racial mixing among the white Dutch reformed, the Swedish Lutherans, the

Puritans and the Quakers. This mixing was only superficial.

Each town or village was controlled by one of the above mentioned ethnic groups. Unlike

other colonies like Pennsylvania and New York, no single ethnic group became dominant in

New Jersey. As a result East and West Jersey became two separate colonies. Burlington County,

aka Burlington City, was the capital of West Jersey. West Jersey had six governments from 1674

to 1700. The main issue which divided the state was land titles and regionalism. Even after

uniting, there were problems between the two former capitals (Lurie and Viet, 2012). The

legislation was always shifting from Burlington to Perth Amboy. There were even two colonial

treasures, two land proprietary groups. British oversight helped united the state of New Jersey

(Lurie and Viet, 2012). After the French and Indian war, the Natives who remained were feared.

The Treaty of Easton in 1758 created reservations. The natives were moved to Brotherton. Like

in the rest of Jersey, the population of natives has been declining since the 1800 (Lurie and Viet,

2012). It was around this time that the gap between the rich landlords and the poor tenants began

to widen.

During the Revolution, it was the Quakers from Burlington County who signed a petition

to discourage the Act of Independence. This petition was sent to the crown by the royal

governor William Franklin. It asked for peace between the colonies and the crown (Lurie and

Viet, 2012). The Continental Congress eventually ousted the governor. New Jersey was the only

northern state with a weak abolitionist movement. US Senator William Proviso of 1846 clearly

stated that Jersey was not abolitionist. Only a few white Quakers and freed blacks in Burlington

did support the abolitionist movement (Lurie and Viet, 2012). New Jersey was close to slave

states like Delaware and Maryland. This helped the creation of the underground railroads. The

key routes went from Burlington to Camden (Lurie and Viet, 2012).

During the Jacksonian Era, the people of New Jersey saw emancipation as eminent. They

sought gradual abolition of slavery, through colonization. Instead of freeing the slaves, they were

gradually relegated to other sectors away from the white society (Lurie and Viet, 2012). A most

were sent back to Africa. The Organizers of the Colonization Society of New Jersey described

African Americans as a moral and political pestilence. After the Emancipation proclamation,

blacks were still migrating to other areas. This is well noted in a document which would fine

blacks if they did not register themselves and their family. It never became a law; however, the

assembly greatly approved it (Lurie and Viet, 2012). This was a clear sign of institutional racism

that is still so pervasive, even today. Racism became more overt during their transition from

bondage to freedom, in 1865-1875 (Matthews and McGovern 2015). This was most noted in the

Timbuctoo Community. It was founded in 1825, by freed slaves. This village suffered from

economic hardships. Its population of 125 declined further when the residents left for urban

centers. All that remains of this all African American community can be found in the cemetery

(Matthews and McGovern 2015).

The last historical development that took place in this county was the landmark case:

Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel (1975) (Casebrief 2015).

The case was brought up by minorities who lived in substandard housing or were forced to move

elsewhere (Casebrief 2015). The ordinance forbade the existence of townhouses, mobile homes,

and apartments. The judge realized that these ordinances only provided housing for middle class

families. It was decided that a municipality was not allowed to zone in such an exclusionist

manner (Casebrief 2015). In New Jersey, school was funded via property tax. To keep the tax

low, the regulations lowered the number of children attending schools through zoning (Casebrief

2015).

D-Geography

The maps show here are useful tools for understanding this county. Maps highlight what

parts of the community are the most important. They also tell a tale of the history of the county.

Each map shown here has a specific purpose. The patrol maps in this County are all centered on

Highways or main roads like the US 1 or US Route 130. The lakes and parks also act as natural

divide between routes. They serve as the dividing line between patrol routes (Map 1). The New

York Times also provided interesting maps about the county (Map 2). The Hispanics and Asian

community have grown since 2010. Whites and Native American population in this county has

decrease. Overall, the population has increased less than 10 percent (Map 2). In the government

website, the park map was interactive. It highlighted all the areas visitors could go to, as well as

guided tours. The local rangers also rely on this map to get around (Map 3). This shows how

important eco-tourism is for the economic infrastructure of this county. The next map worth

seeing is a historical map of the county (Ma 4). It shows how the county used to look like in the

19th

century. It highlights bodies of water bridges, roads and train stations. It also shows city

parks, ponds and large bodies of water (Map 4).

Maps have also been used in this county to draw in outside businesses. It shows this

county as a center of Manufacturing and Retail Trade (County Maps 2011). The official map in

the government website has plenty of detail. It was designed by Steve Spindler, co-founder of

wikimapping. It’s divided between the Northwest Side and the Southeast side (County Maps

2011). The map includes canoe roads, railroads and local roads. The town ledgers have icons of

airport, collage, boat launch, library, hospitals, canoe stop, golf course, campground and

highways. There are also colors designated for military sites and national cemeteries (County

Maps 2011). This county has plenty of historical graveyards (Matthews and McGovern, 2015).

These graveyards are considered tourist destinations. They go in par with museums.

E-History of Burlington County Times

This newspaper was founded by S.W. Calkins in 1958. At the time, Calkins owned the

Bucks County Courier Times and The Herald Standard (Calkins 2015). A real estate developer

named William Levitt told Calkins to start his newspaper in Willingboro, New Jersey. The

printing station and offices was located in US Route 130. This is an important route in New

Jersey (Calkins 2015). It passes through Middle Sex County, Mercer County, Burlington County,

Camden County, Gloucester County and Salem County (Google Maps, 2015). It used to be

called the Levittown Times. In 2008, the printing factories were moved to Falls Township in

Pennsylvania. The Jersey newspaper was moved to Willingboro. It was renamed the Burlington

County Times (Burlington County Times About 2015). This newspaper’s website is part of

Phillyburbs. It shares space with the Bucks County Courier Times and the Intelligencer

newspapers. The current website is the 2012 version. The official the excuse was that the users

were confused about what content belonged were (Burlington County Times About 2015).

In April 2012, Google initiated its Penguin Update (Search Engine Land 2012). This

change penalized disavows links. Disavow links are links that websites tell Google bot to ignore.

These links in particular are purchased links and spam. For this reason, the website fuzzed with

Phillyburbs (Search Engine Land 2012). This Newspaper is currently owned by Calkins Media,

Inc. This brand was created in 1937. It has ABC affiliates and NEA Newservices. Its digital

operations are in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It has a sole digital press in South Dade Florida.

Its headquarters is in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The head publishes is Mike Jameson. The

editor is Patricia Walker (Calkins Media 2015). The newspaper has a circulation of 20,349. The

Sunday circulation is 27,476. The Vice President and Director is Stanley M. Ellis. The Vice

President is Sandra C. Hardy. The weekly ad rate is $23 per inch (Editor and Publisher 2015).

The Sunday rate is $25. The online ad rate varies. The pageview count is 800,000. However,

these numbers apply only to the main Phillyburbs website. The president and general manager is

Micheal G. Jameson. The paper distribution is via Newstands and Carriers (Editor and Publisher

2015).

F-Audience

The Newspaper’s perceived audiences are the white majority. It does include nonwhite

articles from time to time. This is a response to the changing demography of its county. It

focuses mainly on the baby boomers (The Burlington County Times/ Aging Boom, 2014). They

comprise a large segment of the population. This group is still in the workforce. They also

delayed having children, until their late 30s. An important section is the Local Obituaries. On

average, there are at least 5 names (The Burlington County Times/ Obituaries, 2015).

G-Issue

The one of the Burlington County Times’ main issue is aging. It addresses this problem

through Boosterism. Boosterism shows up in three different kinds of articles. The first style of

article highlights old people’s contributions to the community. The second method talks about

the provisions the county has provided to help them out (The Burlington County Times/ Aging

Boom, 2014). The third method centers on obituaries about prominent citizens who died. These

obituaries too come in three forms. Citizens can pay for them; leave a death notice or an In-

Memoriams (The Burlington County Times/ Obituaries, 2015). The government page shows how

important seniors are to the state. This importance is reflected in the newspaper. The

government’s page has a promo for the Senior Home Security Program (Burlington County

Government Website, 2015). This program involves a free checkup of their home, security items

like locks and fire detectors, and information about the latest scams. All these items are freely

provided to Burlington County’s Senior citizens. This program has been active for the last 25

years. Since it only has $49,482 of a pass through grant, it can only help 300 homeowners per

year (Burlington County Government Website, 2015).

E-Network Analysis

This network analysis of the Burlington County Times focuses on the work of the

Journalists Joseph “Joe” Green, Rose Krebs, and David Levinsky. These Journalists specialized

in reporting crime news. Roughly 60 percent of their work featured crime news. The Both Krebs

and Levinsky have cooperated in articles in the last few months (Levinsky and Krebs 2015).

Their works relies on official police sources. Their work focused on police officers catching the

criminals.

Concept

Boosterism is defined as the act of promoting something to improve people’s perception

of that something. The something can be a person, organization, a cause, a town, a city, a state or

legislation. This research focuses on Burlington County Times employing Boosterism to promote

people, organizations and a cause. The people being promoted are cops, politicians and the white

elite. The main organizations promoted are the police and the county government. The main

cause is economic development. This practice is associated with small town or rural areas. This

project will show the negative effects of such practices on the elderly. The Analysis of this news

outlet through Boosterism will answer these three hypothetical questions:

1- What are the negative effects of Boosterism practices in Journalism?

2- How does Boosterim undermine the problems of the community?

3- Why do journalists employ Boosterism?

Robert Gutche defines Boosterism as everyday news that promotes the dominant

narrative in a community. The dominant narrative is that whites are great, racism is a thing of the

past, individualism and color blindness (Aleman 2013). It reinforces stereotypical identities and

dictates the future of those who fall under those stereotypes. Those that do not fall under those

norms are either chastised or completely ignored (Gutsche 2014). The problem with Boosterism

is that it is not so obvious to those engaging in Boosterism; nor is it obvious to people reading

Boosterism news. Some do not even see it as problem (Gutsche 2014).

Ideally, journalists are supposed to get both sides of the story. Due to time constraints and

budgeting, the stories became one sided. This means that journalists start to rely on a single

source for the news. This single source is usually someone in power like a major or a police

officer (Aleman 2013). Even when using more than one source, journalists prefer to rely on

official sources. Humans are only used for their emotional intake. Journalist’s ideal role would

be to question those in power, not cheer them on (Gutche 2014). Their lack of questioning of

their primary sources stands as the most common manifestation of Boosterism. After all,

politicians seek media coverage to promote their campaigns (Knott 2005). The police

department’s budget depends on their perceived effectiveness

Since journalists do not question these sources, they fail in their role as the Fourth Estate.

In the US, the Fourth Estate refers to an unofficial 4th

branch of Government. The media is

supposed to put in check the other 3 main branches of government (Knott 2005). It is based on

the popular belief that the media is supposed to inform the population. When it functions

properly, it can help maintain a healthy democracy (Knott 2005). Overtime, Boosterism has

become quite common place. Part of the problem lies in the competitive nature of this country. In

order to attract federal money, states compete with each other. Within states, counties and cities

compete for state funding (Knott 2005).

This concept is known as Competitive Boosterism (Gedzel 1995). The local elites use all

their resources to attract investment, trade and industry from other cities. Competitive

Boosterism concept started being developed in the 19th

century (Gedzel 1995). It was noted in

the boosteristic promotion made in frontier towns competing for railways and other forms of

development (Gedzel 1995). In order to earn investment for their development, these towns

created an idealized image of themselves. This image was then spread by their local newspaper

with the hopes of drawing in investment from the federal government (Gedzel 1995). Due to

scarcity, one county, city or a state benefits at the expense of another.

Boosterism is not only used to promote the dominant narrative. It is also a tool used by

minorities to promote their cause. This type of Boosterism is aimed at earning the favor of the

white elites (Olso 2009). Olso described how the natives in the 1900s used their image to show

that they were willing to work with the whites. The natives did this to keep their fishing rights in

exchange of having a train station passing through their territory. This shows that regardless of

race, Boosterism serves to promote the dominant narrative, even when defending a minority’s

cause (Olso 2009).

Method

The Burlington County Times will be analyzed in different ways. The first facet includes

comparison of insider and outsider county history. The next thing that will be analyzed will be

the network. Through phone interviews questions the paper will find out why they rely on certain

sources. The results of the interviews of Joseph “Joe” Green, Rose Krebs, and David Levinsky

had almost identical results. These results will be discussed in the analysis. The second part of

the analysis focuses on the textual analysis of the articles in the Aging Boom section out (The

Burlington County Times/ Aging Boom, 2014). It was treated as a special topic last 2014. The

other articles analyzed will be the obituaries. So supplement this analysis, locals and journalists

alike were interviewed. They were interviewed using Facebook, email, Twitter and Skype. The

journalists interviewed will be asked these following questions:

1.What are the best sources for their news? How did you go about choosing them?

2.When do you seek non-official sources? Why?

3.How does your journalism training affect your choices of

4. Who do you considered bad sources?

The locals were asked questions like:

1.What are your general concerns? Do you read the newspaper? What news do you follow? Do

you feel the newspaper represents your reality?

2.How’s your grandma and grandpa? Do they live at home or in a retirement home?

3.If you start feeling sick, would you go to the hospital or to the pharmacy? Or how’s Obama

care treating you?

The other textual analysis focuses on analyzing cultural artifacts of people in Burlington

County. Through Facebook, you can find out a lot about the people living there. Their posts can

be treated as cultural artifacts. The newspaper also maintains a social media presence. Its

subscribers follow the news on either twitter or Facebook. A good number of the people in the

county follow the headlines through Facebook. This is common even among people who do not

subscribe to the Daily. It was a good way to get in contact with people who were following this

newspaper. These were mostly interviewed through Facebook. There were other interviews

through Skype. The interviews with the reporters were done partly through email and partly

through phone. The phone interviews were more successful, though somewhat short. The last

part of the conceptual analysis will focus on Competitive Boosterism, applied to sport articles

(Gendzel 1995).

Analysis/ Discussion

Boosterism was defined as promoting a person, organization or cause. The analysis will

start with Boosterism focused on the individual. Exploring Boosterism through the person

schema will focus on articles that promote an individual (Levinsky 2015). These articles usually

start with the person being promoted. It usually follows with a highlight of all the awesome

things they did for the County (Knott 2005). The articles showcase officers arresting people or

offering services, leaders carrying out a positive ordinance or honoring a regular person. In the

organization analysis, this paper will focuses on Burlington County Times’ citation of public

officials and police officers. The articles are ordinances, senior programs and grants. In these

articles the characters being boosted have the first quote in the articles (Levinsky 2015). Other

people quoted were the beneficiaries of the ordinance. The second most important organization

being promoted in the newspaper is the police (Levinsky 2015).

The main cause being promoted in Burlington County is economic development. The

Freeboard Director Bruce Gargiano strives to provide the best possible services while keeping

taxes low (Burlington County South Jersey Starts Here 2015). This county has a long history of

government trying to do exactly the same thing. It sought to decrease property tax and spending.

By analyzing this claim through Boosterism, it is interesting to see the things that were left out.

Ideally, they should be doing some affordable housing projects. However, the priority thus far

has been manufacturing buildings, like warehouses (Burlington County South Jersey Starts Here

2015). This newspaper promotes the idea that Babyboomers should stay in the workforce. It

praises people still working and being useful to the community (Burlington County Times/

Aging Boom 2014). Boosterism also appears in obituaries. The obituaries are usually posted by

people with sound financial background. They stand as proof of what is socially considered a life

well led. It was interesting to note the race and the ages of the people that died (Burlington

County Times/ Obituaries 2015).

Boosterism applied to history yields interesting results. Boosterism is defined as the

practice of talking about something in a positive light. It is done to promote that something. This

region relies on tourism of their historic sites. In the Burlington County Times, this Boosterism

of history appears in articles promoting museums and public parks (Kolumbic 2015). This is well

noted in an article about Kirby’s Mill in Medford. It focused on a nostalgic view of an 18th

century mill. The same nostalgia can be found on articles about houses were the Underground

Railroad took place (Kolumbic 2015). By highlighting the abolitionist minorities, the newspaper

ignored the sad fact that the majority of Burlington despised those of slave background. Being

Quakers and all, their religion bound them to care about the plight of slaves (Burlington County

South Jersey Starts Here/ History 2015). However, the Quakers were still racist (Lurie and Viet,

2012). This article relied on the Historic Society. This society owns all the Museums and historic

sites. It has a financial incentive to get more people to visit those places. As such, the

information they diverge is meant to boost their reputation.

The following Boosterism analysis focuses on the network analysis of the work of Joseph

Green, Rose Krebs, and David Levinsky. Burlington county prosecutor, Robert D. Bernandy gets

sited often. When reporting, Levinsky sometimes do not use quotes appear in his articles. When

using quotes, he relies on public statements given by the prosecutor or the police chief. Other

articles involved interpreting public states like unemployment data and case files (Levinsky and

Krebs 2015). Joe Green showed similar tendencies, with emphasis on the prosecutor. After

looking at 20 articles, none of the criminals were ever cited. The articles only had just the facts

provided by the police. His case followed a format very similar to Levinsky’s articles. Green’s

style of writing was mimicked by Krebs and Levinsky. They all follow quite the identical

formatting. It almost looks as if it’s the same article written over and over (Levinsky and Krebs

2015).The only difference was the names of the criminals and the victims. Rather, the main

characters were always the police officers fighting crime. Boosterism causes journalist to neglect

the “why” question (Levinsky and Krebs 2015). Even if answering the why question contributed

to the dominant narrative, it is still an important question. Journalist pedagogy should focus more

on answering the why question (Aleman 2013). However, explaining why something occurred

would require journalists to take an extra step: Like talking with the criminals in jail or visiting

Chinatown (Aleman 2013).

The next subject up for discussion is Boosterism surrounding the problem of old people

in the county. This problem was addressed in a special section in the Burlington County Times.

This section starts with the percentage of old people in county. It follows with tips for retirement.

Of the tips that caught the writer’s attention was reverse mortgages (The Burlington County

Times/ Aging Boom, 2014). The old people in Florida tried this experiment and now most of

their homes are foreclosing. The article about retiring tips was nothing more than a press release

masquerading as real news. It was written by Micheal Zisa of the National Lenders Association.

The resource information was just filled with generic information. The rest was human interest

stories about prominent old people who were still working (The Burlington County Times/

Aging Boom, 2014). Most of them were written by Peg Quan. She does the whole human

interest story gig.

In the article about old people in the work force, Quan interviewed old people who were

still working (Quan 2015). All were still working because their Social Security did not kick in

until they were 67. Even those who were technically retired were still working (Quan 2015). The

Social Security did not provide them with enough money to live on. The Boosterism aspect in

the article relates to the assisted living facilities of the county (Quan 2015). They are usually

highlighted in the articles instead of nursing homes. The condition of old people is more to the

point in obituaries. Even if they were written by people of middle class, they make for interesting

cultural artifacts. A good number despite being obituaries also served to promote certain funeral

homes (Obituaries 2015). All of them had one or two links to a location. In this sense, the

obituaries were grim press releases in the guise of obituaries (Obituaries 2015). It makes sense to

hide ads inside the obituaries. The old people the writer has spoken to admit browsing over the

obituaries. In this respect, Boosterism acts a promotion too to pilfer wares to people who are

concerned with their own mortality.

Competitive Boosterism can be applied to sports articles. Gendzel noted that overtime

sports articles came to resemble the business section. Both emphasized successful organizations

and its main actors (Gendzel 1995). In Rimback’s article, he wrote about a successful local

golfer. He had won the Jeff Offord Scholarship (Rimback 2015). One can draw a parallel with

this newspaper highlighting successful business people. Every Sunday, they post an article called

“Burlington County Times Business Achievers”. Both these articles follow similar lines, like

highlight were their financial achievements, their skill and the organization or team they belong

to (Burlington County Times 2015). This county is competing with other counties in a Zero Sum

Game. It gains at the expense of another county. In order to cope with austerity measures, the

county has to rely on redistribution of jobs and capital (Gendzel 1995). The local elites rely on

sports to lure investment. For this reason, each county has an incentive to keep their local teams

happy. This Boosterism is reflected in the Burlington Times sports articles. In essence, it shows a

development strategy heavily reliant on sports (Gendzel 1995). Economists doubt the wisdom of

investing in sports, instead of education or employment (Gendzel 1995). Still, it is a common

trend. The only downside to this economic development is that only a few people benefit

(Gendzel 1995).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Journalists rely on Boosterism because it is a cheap source of news. The

dominant narrative in New Jersey is doing more with less. This translates in fewer, overworked

Journalists. Financial incentive makes journalists rely on official sources. Both journalist and the

object they are boosting have a financial incentive to rely on one another. This creates a

symbiosis were Journalism does not act as a check on those people in power. Rather, it works to

reinforce their strength. Another problem lies in the training of journalists. The training

emphasize on official sources (Mergel 2012). When it comes to citing normal people, they are

only brought forth for emotional content. Sentimentality undermines objectivity; specially, when

it focuses on the victims and not on the perpetrator in crime stories. It’s very common to focus

on what the criminal did and not on the reason why the crime was done. Journalists should at

least make some small attempt to get both sides of the story (Obar, Zube and Lampe 2012).

The solution to these problems is changing the way journalism is thought. It should

encourage journalists to get out of their comfort zone. They should be encouraged not to take

seriously anything that anyone says; especially if the information comes from official sources.

Another good idea would be to reduce the power of the editor. After working with an editor for

some time, journalists learn to guess what he or she likes (Mergel 2012). The fact that the editor

has the power to veto a story is problematic. The final arbiter of newsworthiness should be the

public and the journalist’s instincts (Mergel 2012). In print media, it’s a bit hard to measure. If

the internet version of a newspaper can provide a clue as to what people are actually like to read.

By measuring the time they spend on a specific article, journalists do not need to even guess

what the public wants to know. Another good thing that journalists should do is study the kinds

of articles that people share in the social Reddit (Mergel 2012). Reddit is a good place to start.

Reddit news shows you what the topics that most worry the public are. Other social media that

are a good source of news are twitter. Companies usually post major changes first in their twitter

page (Obar, Zube and Lampe 2012). The other change would be to reduce the influence of the

publishers. Another good change should be to redefined newspaper’s marketing mode. If the

newspaper had financial independence, it could afford more in depth reporting and more

reporters. Lastly, journalists should be more careful when covering sports news (Gendzel 1995).

They should research the negative effects of building a new stadium with tax payer money.

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(2015) Editor & publisher newspaper data book 94th

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MAPS

Map 1 – Sample of Patrol Sectors

Map 2 – New York Times Map

Map 3 – Burlington County Park System

Map 4- 19th

Century Historical- Burlington County

Map 5 – Choose New Jersey

Map 6 – Provisional Map showing the Cities and Municipalities