Why is "Orange County" responsable for almost all county level news?
Posted by peajam101@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 37 comments
Every time I hear about something happening on a county level in the US there seems to be a 2/3 chance of it being Orange County.
CinemaSideBySides@reddit
I think this might be a confirmation bias or you're stuck in an algorithm or something. I can't say I've ever noticed an abundance of Orange County news. I couldn't even tell you where Orange County is, since I'm assuming more than one state has one.
Don_T_Blink@reddit
Anything newsworthy that doesn’t involve politics happens at the county level. Can you please name a few examples?
peajam101@reddit (OP)
To clarify, I'm not American, so I'm basing this off what I see mentioned in headlines, typically they'll mention either state or city rather than county
Don_T_Blink@reddit
OC has 3 million people, that’s as much as many states have, for example Oklahoma has 4 million people.
peajam101@reddit (OP)
It's generally stuff like "_____ County man does _____" and bits of historical trivia, mostly about the civil rights movement
TheBimpo@reddit
It’s your algorithm mate.
Optimal-Hair-7888@reddit
Im curious what news at the COUNTY level even spreads to other countries?
wcpm88@reddit
There are two Orange Counties with a lot of people in them + popular tourist destinations.
You’re probably experiencing some confirmation bias as well.
Confetticandi@reddit
Orange County in California and Orange County in Florida have a combined population of close to 5 million people and 5000 km^2 in land mass.
They’re two large counties in two of our most populated states, and both are in high profile, culturally relevant areas (Los Angeles metro and Orlando where Disney World is, respectively).
So, a lot of news comes out of them and it’s often news people across the country are interested in hearing.
Plus, Florida in particular has “Sunshine Laws” that require virtually everything that goes on there, criminally and administratively, to be made fully public. So, the higher volume of information creates more news.
HankyPanky80@reddit
Confirmation bias. I swear I hear Boward county in nearly every Florida man story. It's not true. I just register it every time I hear it and I don't register the other names.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit
Broward
HonestLemon25@reddit
There are several counties named Orange in the US. Two are major metropolitan/tourist areas:
Orange County, FL
Orange County, CA
Honorable mention: Orange County, NY
esthershair@reddit
And the rest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County?wprov=sfti1
peajam101@reddit (OP)
Two massively populated ones + six smaller ones definitely explain it
KJHagen@reddit
And Orange County, VA
shornscrot@reddit
We have a Green County…yea, never mind
Ibbot@reddit
As a less relevant mention: [Orange County, VT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_Vermont)
According-Drawing-32@reddit
FL or CA?
ZonaWildcats23@reddit
It isn’t.
blipsman@reddit
It’s a large area of reasonably dense suburban development without a major city as point of reference. It’s not really LA, not San Diego either.
tkdcondor@reddit
I would say that North OC is more culturally connected to LA (larger cities and major businesses), while South OC is more culturally connected to SD (Smaller towns and beaches)
Beetso@reddit
Almost 20% of all states have an Orange County.
rando24183@reddit
The less news I hear about DelCo, the better.
Serious answer: relatively local news often is reported at the county level. But national news is for a wide audience and will anchor to a major city. A lot of states will have the same county name, so something like "Montgomery County" will be confusing. "Philadelphia suburbs" at least gives some frame of reference. It's just how news works. Hyper local news will be more granular than just the county, global news may only mention the country or continent.
Some locations may also depend on a different term, like ward, parish, district, borough.
iAmAmbr@reddit
As a Texan, I see a lot of Tarrant, Bexar, and Harris, not too much orange county these days. I do remember a movie though...
tangouniform2020@reddit
Orange county is actually a fairly common name. And where do you live? SoCal? OC is the Florida Man central of SoCal
Extr4Sp1cy@reddit
Regarding Orange County in CA. There’s a lot of smaller cities within close proximity of each other in OC (e.g. Westminster, Fountain Valley, Anaheim, Tustin, Newport Beach etc.). So sometimes it’s just easier to refer to news events in OC as just “Orange County News”).
New-Process-52@reddit
Hello
Kevin7650@reddit
It’s the name of a county in the greater LA area and also the name of the county Orlando Florida is in. Lots of news comes out of both places.
Grouchy-Total550@reddit
NY also has an orange county, though it is mostly only known for the motorcycle show where they yelled at each other all the time.
bonanzapineapple@reddit
VT also has an orange county but it doesn't make the news ever
ITrCool@reddit
Paul Sr’s business died completely apparently. It sure if Jr’s still going or moved on.
ClickClick_Boom@reddit
I always assumed that was in Florida, those guys had Florida men energy.
TheCloudForest@reddit
Orange County is a very large county (bigger population than around 20 states), but it doesn't have a single prominent city. So typically it is a stand-in for "suburban LA", and it can be referred to as such with the assumption that people understand it more than a news report about basically any other of the thousands of counties in the country.
That said, I've also heard plenty of news reports discuss places like Cook County, Harris County, Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Westchester County, and more.
hannahstohelit@reddit
There are apparently eight Orange Counties! I grew up near the one in NY which is moderately sized but the FL and CA ones are probably the source of most of the news.
riarws@reddit
There are two big Orange Counties in the US. The one in California is just south of Los Angeles and contains Disneyland, and has a large area and population. The one in Florida contains Walt Disney World, and also has a large population. The latter also contains many Florida Men.
Sea-Chain7394@reddit
Weird I've only ever heard of orange county because of that movie from the early 2000s and never since
OhThrowed@reddit
Los Angeles is a big metro area.