Local News & Information
How informal networks can strengthen local news
journalismdesign.com
Greater exposure to higher-quality local news leads to more political participation (Shaker, 2014), reduced polarization (Darr, Hitt and Dunaway, 2021, 2018; Moskowitz, 2021), less corporate malfeasance (Heese, Pérez-Cavazos and Peter, 2022), healthier municipal finances (Gao, Lee and Murphy, 2020), and increased political competition (Rubado and... See more
Alt business model for local news: government provides a voucher, then each person can give it to a local news org they find valuable. Helps create public funding for journalism, but avoid government intervention in the content itself
Engagement journalism; study by Talia Stroud’s team at CME
Americans no longer have an accurate sense of their own society. For example, a few years ago, a poll showed that Americans, on average, think Muslims are seventeen times as large a portion of the U.S. population as they actually are. Another poll showed that most Americans think a majority of immigrants are in the country illegally (in fact, 77%... See more
public service journalism is a load-bearing prerequisite for democracy
Ben Werdmuler
that local journalism is a crucial facet of society that connects us to the places we live and the people who live around us and gives us a sorely needed sense of shared reality in an atomised age; that this kind of journalism has been decimated in Greater Manchester and pretty much every other community in this country because its old business... See more
Irrational optimism and the rebuilding of local journalism
…if it inspires them and thrills them, as well as imparting useful information
The death of the obituary matters because local features can be an antidote to the trends of polarization and demonization. Cable news dehumanizes. Community news can rehumanize.
Steven Waldman • How high school sports coverage can save democracy - Poynter
We’ve said this a hundred times before, but it’s always worth repeating: the world’s biggest news organisations aren’t reflecting the world. They are reflecting what’s dramatic, rare, and cheap enough to turn into a story. If you’re after an accurate picture of what’s getting worse, or what’s improving, you’ll need to look somewhere other than the... See more