Local News & Information

This research looks at the influence of three commonly cited features on the success of digital local news outlets: the background of the publisher, experimentation with different revenue streams, and the wealth of the surrounding community. Of the three, only the wealth of the community is statistically correlated with “success” (which we define... See more

People will pay for the convenience of not poring through internet sludge all day and having someone clarify what they need to know.”

What I have learned in my years studying the role of journalism in civic discussion is that democracies are best served when media coverage focuses on issues that affect society and people’s everyday lives and minimizes “horse race” reporting that obsesses over who is ahead in opinion surveys or fundraising.

Stop trying to make social networks succeed, stop dreaming of a universal network. Instead, invest in your own communities. Help them make long-term, custom and sustainable solutions. Try to achieve small and local successes instead of pursuing an imaginary universal one. It will make you happier.

It will make all of us happier.

For Sand and Hunt, there is a clear understanding of what must be done. America needs a working-class media. It’s something that has preoccupied me for years. If we thought of it as precariat media, we would also include the falling middle class that I have called the middle precariat (including most freelance writers right now). After the 2024... See more

1/This study suggests that global use of social media over time leads to global sorting into just two primary camps, or worldviews. If their hypothesis is correct, it has profound implications for the world in the coming years. h/t @jonathanstray https://t.co/sPbQufHfSG https://t.co/DgFukvxvh5

Asynchronous forms of engagement can be synchronized with regular weekly or daily reports provided by the platform that serve something of the function that “talk of the town” columns in local newspapers used to provide.

A working-class-focused media could be supported by the dozens of media-oriented philanthropies and local news initiatives funded by taxpayers, like the recent ones in New Jersey and California, as well as independent media cooperatives—people pooling resources to create real alternatives to corporate media. As Pickard has written, public funding... See more