Get interested in the world, and don't let the story get away.

Everything about him made it clear this guy was an Alabama native: the Pro Bass fisherman cap; the blue jeans worn thin by hard work, not by fashion styles; the pickup truck keys on the desk; the Southern drawl; and of course the Crimson Tide T-shirt that even a rival Auburn fan like myself must note.

He peered at me in utter disbelief, and in true cavalier fashion known to this region, he challenged what I had just proclaimed as if it was a direct insult to his heritage.

"Are you trying to be serious? Do you really expect me to believe that a lot of Alabama's catfish comes from Vietnam? No way. I don't believe that. I don't believe that the catfish I ate in town last night could've come all the way from Vietnam. Not instead of Alabama catfish. No way."

Way, dude.

And if he had read his local Anniston Star newspaper, he already would be in the know about such critical matters.

This was the scene in a university graduate school class I recently attended when the conversation centered on global influence as a local issue.

I was ready to jump all over this one, ready to earn what this day would be easy credit points for classroom participation.

"You see, global news is local news," I continued. "No one in a modern, progressive society can pretend to live the life of isolation. Like it or not, the global economy is as real to us here at home today as is Wal-Mart putting your favorite bait shop out of business."

Ouch. I didn't have to hit him below the belt.

But such is life in all of our United States of America these days. The problem is, we in the media seem to cling just as much to ignorance of such matters as the stereotyped good ole boy in my column here.

I'm not talking about international reporting.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, and all the other big boys in the industry still have at least a few folks in the ranks doing that job, albeit they are disappearing fast.

I'm talking about the obligation--the very duty--that community newspapers of all sizes have in breaking down global events and issues into what they mean on the local level for local readers.

We journalism leaders can whine all we want about cutbacks and priorities, but the bottom line is that some of the problems we face, we bring on ourselves because of our stubborn reluctance to see new ways of doing journalism until it's too late.

Well, partners ... if you're not localizing global news, you're one of those still behind n the wave of change, and you know what they say about change.

Change is inevitable, except in a vending machine.

You don't buy catfish in a vending machine.

Our op-ed pages are no exception. It matters more to you and your readers what stands you take and what leadership you show in how you opine about global/local issues. But opine we must do as an industry when it comes to helping our readers grasp such a whirlwind change in the times.

Local analysis, local reporting, and then local debate of global affairs is a new brand of the butter that modern newspapers must put on their bread to survive.

Readers demand it.

Readers are angry their jobs are disappearing, and they want to know why. Who, if not the credible local newspaper, is in a better position to reach them and educate them regarding such?

Readers also are viewers. They watch TV at their leisure, not by a TV guide any longer, and they listen to satellite radio or view the Web any darn time they please. Again, I ask, who better than the credible local newspaper to seize this new beat, this growing wave of interest in analysis of what is happening to us as an American society?

Readers are growing impatient and frustrated about the expensive war in Iraq. What are they going to feel if they don't fully understand that an even bigger problem may fall upon them in Iran, and that Iran just might be the biggest reason we have to stay longer in Iraq?

Do you really want the wire services to explain to your local mamas and daddies why the local kids and grandparents alike serving overseas still have a job to do?

And Lord knows, you don't want them to find out anywhere else but in your paper that the local catfish aren't biting, and why.

What? Global/local is not already one of the beats on your so-called modern, contemporary newsroom beat list? Do you really think the only thing changing fast about our industry is the need for online technology and a new, hip "online editor" to whom we can dish off such chores and challenges?

Think again, before a big ole metaphoric catfish bites your newspaper right in the butt.

It's real, folks.

If you make it interesting and give it the creative attention it deserves, it also can be a success for your readership, and you'll soon see how and why it will creep higher on the news beat priority list.

First, however, it must interest you. Without that and without fun, creative thinking, the effort will mean lit-fie.

Do it right, and you can report on the world even from a bait shop.

And it will be a local story that didn't get away.

Troy Turner is on an academic leave of absence from The Anniston Star in Alabama, where he served as executive editor. E-mail [e-mail]