Speaking Part 2 · Media & abstractIn the Sep–Dec 2026 reported set
Describe a Piece of Local News You Found Interesting
In short
“Describe a Piece of Local News You Found Interesting” is a common IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card. You get 1 minute to prepare and should speak for 1–2 minutes, covering all four points below. This page gives you a Band 9 model answer, an idea map so you can make it your own, the Part 3 follow-up questions with answers, and the vocabulary examiners reward.
The task card
Describe a Piece of Local News You Found Interesting. You should say:
- •What the news was about
- •How you heard about it
- •Who it affected
- •And explain why you found it interesting
Band 9 model answer
The piece of local news I'll describe was about the library in my area, which the council announced last year it was going to close — and which, I'm pleased to say, is still open.
The proposal was part of a budget round, and the library was one of four buildings listed for closure on the grounds of low usage. The figure quoted was a fall in book loans of something like forty per cent over a decade, which on the face of it is a reasonable argument.
I heard about it in the least sophisticated way possible: a handwritten sign in the window. Somebody who worked there had printed the consultation details and put them up, and I only noticed because I walk past it most days. It was in the local paper as well, and then on a neighbourhood group, but I'd have missed it entirely if not for the sign — which tells you something about how local news actually reaches people.
Who it affected turned out to be a much wider group than the loan figures suggested, and that was the whole story. The campaign that formed did something quite clever: instead of arguing about books, they counted what the building was actually used for. It hosted a job-search session twice a week. It was where about a dozen elderly people came in the afternoons largely to be around other people. It had the only free public toilet on that street, and the only reliable free internet, which mattered enormously to people applying for benefits online. None of that appeared anywhere in the usage statistics, because the statistics measured loans.
Why I found it interesting is that it was a very clear example of measuring the wrong thing and then making a decision on it. The council wasn't being malicious; they had a number, the number had gone down, and the conclusion followed. It just happened that the number described about a fifth of what the building did.
The closure was dropped after the consultation, which I'd like to attribute to the argument rather than the volume of complaint, though I suspect both mattered. And I've thought about it since whenever I see a decision justified by a statistic — the question I now ask is what the number doesn't count.
Make it your own: three angles
A local campaign or closure
The best material — it has a clear conflict, identifiable people affected, and an outcome, which covers three bullets almost automatically.
A new development or building in your area
Good for describing effects on different groups, and it leads naturally into the Part 3 questions about local decision-making.
A positive local story (an achievement, a rescue, a discovery)
Lighter in tone and easy to tell, but make sure the fourth bullet gives a real reason rather than just saying it was heartwarming.
What the examiner is listening for
Local means local — a national story weakens the card and examiners notice. The third bullet, who it affected, is where the marks are: naming specific groups gives you detail and vocabulary that a summary of the story never will. And find a reason for the fourth bullet that goes beyond 'it affected me', as the model does by turning it into a point about measurement.
Part 1 warm-up questions
- Do you follow the news?
- How do you usually get your news?
- Are you more interested in local or international news?
- Do you discuss the news with your family?
Part 3 follow-up questions & answers
Is local news important?
Arguably more important than national news for most people's actual lives, since local decisions determine their schools, transport and services. It also does a scrutiny job nothing else does — when local papers close, research fairly consistently shows local government spending and corruption rise, simply because nobody is watching council meetings any more.
Why are many local newspapers closing?
The business model collapsed rather than the demand. Classified advertising funded local journalism for a century and moved online to platforms that don't employ reporters. The audience is still there, but nobody has found a way to make it pay at local scale, and the result is large areas with no journalist covering them at all.
Do people trust the news?
Less than they did, and the decline is sharper for national outlets than local ones, which people still tend to regard as relatively neutral. Some of the distrust is earned and some is manufactured — 'you can't trust the media' is a convenient position for anyone who would rather not be reported on. The practical effect is that people increasingly choose sources that agree with them.
How do people find out about local issues now?
Social media groups mostly, and word of mouth, which is faster and far less reliable. The difference is that a newspaper had someone whose job was to check; a neighbourhood group has whoever posts first. It's genuinely good for spreading awareness and genuinely bad for accuracy, and rumours about local matters now circulate at a speed no correction can match.
Should governments fund local journalism?
There's a case, given that the scrutiny function is a public good that the market has stopped paying for. The obvious objection is independence — journalism funded by the body it's meant to scrutinise is compromised. Models exist that put distance in between, and they seem preferable to the alternative of no coverage at all, which is what a lot of places now have.
Do you think news should always be negative?
It shouldn't be, though there's a reason it skews that way — problems are newsworthy and functioning things aren't, and attention responds more strongly to threat. The cost is a distorted picture, where people consistently believe crime and danger are rising even when they're falling. A bit more reporting on what works would be a corrective, not a softening.
Useful vocabulary
| Word / phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| a consultation | a period for public opinion before a decision |
| to come to light | to become publicly known |
| a campaign | an organised effort to achieve something |
| to make the headlines | to be widely reported |
| a budget cut | a reduction in money available |
| to raise awareness | to make more people know about something |
| a petition | a signed request to those in authority |
| word of mouth | information spread by people talking |
| scrutiny | careful examination, especially of those in power |
| to overturn a decision | to reverse it |
More cue cards
Describe a Library or Museum You Have Visited
Preparing for the whole test, not just Speaking?
Practise Reading with unlimited AI-generated Cambridge-style passages and trap-level feedback, and check your Writing against the official criteria — free to start.