Run the numbers in just about any assessment category, and Centre County appears as a beacon of good news.
Unemployment? It’s just 5.6 percent here, according to federal data — well under the reported statewide average of 8.1 percent.
Education? Proportionally, our residents outpace most other Pennsylvanians in their collection of high school and college degrees.
Our county poverty rate may appear oddly high (14.8 percent compared to 12.1 percent statewide), but that’s partly due to the presence here of so many college students, who push down average-income calculations. A more telling number may be the county poverty rate among young children and teenagers under the age of 18. That figure is 12.5 percent, well less than the 16.6 percent rate seen statewide.
Given that background, I suppose it’s easy to see why the ‘Happy Valley’ designation has stuck so well here.
But the nickname troubles me regardless, particularly when our news media tend to make it a central theme.
For a lot of businesses, marketing campaigns and branding efforts, using the ‘Happy Valley’ schtick makes a lot of sense. Penn State alumni connect with it; students often identify with it; and the term just presents an optimistic, upbeat view of things. This is Happy Valley, after all; enjoy yourself. Breathe it in; absorb it.
In the news media, though, the title has repeatedly given me pause, even as I’ve used it in coverage myself. Consider:
- ‘Happy Valley,’ it turns out, isn’t a real place. It has no geographic definition. It’s not on maps — it exists purely in our imaginations. It’s a metaphor, though not everyone realizes that. As noted on Penn State’s official website, State College and the University Park campus actually sit in the Nittany Valley, near Penns Valley. The ‘Happy Valley’ name — promoted often by journalists, as Penn State indicates — gained popularity through the late 1960s and into the 1970s, as television coverage of Penn State football went nationwide and sports journalists latched on to the title.
- The news media are here, in theory, to report on reality as it is, not necessarily how we imagine or wish it to be. Looking at the name objectively, we have to see that ‘Happy Valley’ is a term rife with opinion and judgment. If we journalists see this place as a happy valley, or if our readers and viewers believe we see this place that way, then do we — as reporters — lose credibility? Could someone who believes this place is a happy valley be trusted to report on its underbelly fairly, warts and all? Should an apparent ‘Happy Valley’ believer and promoter be seen as a homer, crippled in his or her ability to expose the unhappy elements of the place?
- Even as our countywide statistics suggest this area is, in fact, happier than most, it’s not a happy place for everyone. Think of the Penn State undergrads saddled with debt, leaving school with an average of more than $31,000 in obligations apiece. Think of those who couldn’t afford to carry the debt in the first place — and have avoided college as a result. Think of those who are unemployed, those who haven’t benefited from the university’s presence here. Think of the blue-collar workers who are priced out of living in the Centre Region, where housing costs are inflated, and who must commute many miles to work. Think of those who rely on CATA and simply cannot abide more cuts in public transportation.
Don’t take this the wrong way: I’m not suggesting that any outlet using ‘Happy Valley’ is incapable of covering the region fairly and objectively. Not at all. I’m not even suggesting that anyone who uses the term believes this area is a happy valley. It’s easy to get caught up in the local lexicon without weighing its implications. God knows I’ve used ‘Happy Valley’ plenty, both in and outside of work.
Rather, my concern is with the impressions created by use — or overuse — of the term. I worry that the news media, the local media in particular, may accidentally give up some credibility by employing it too often, too uncritically, without fully contemplating its impact.
And I worry that if ‘Happy Valley’ becomes too overwhelmingly popular — too overused in general — we may become increasingly, subconsciously insulated against the troubles of our region.
There’s already a tendency here, even in times of trouble, to fold our hands and say: ‘At least we’re here. We should be glad for that. It’s so much worse elsewhere.’
Maybe it’s true; maybe it isn’t. But the frequent repetition of ‘Happy Valley,’ deliberately subjective or not, certainly feeds the mindset.
As ostensible purveyors of objective truth, shouldn’t we reporters, editors, news producers, etc., be more critical than to feed the sentiment so blithely?
