Prologue
I thought it rather serendipitous that I have the chance to reflect on the need for more local news coverage on the 50th anniversary of NPR. You might be thinking, "what is he talking about? NPR is national, not local." Let me just say that everything that comes out of your radio speakers is local. Any public radio station that can bring the issues reported on by NPR and put them in local perspective is accomplishing at least a part of their mission. As it was 50 years ago, it is now. Your support is needed more than ever.
Statement of Need
The Importance of local journalism
A little over a year ago, the second largest school district
in Delaware found itself in trouble. It was staring down a deficit of $10
million. The specter of teacher layoffs, the end of athletics and
extracurriculars, and the end of a promising magnet school program seemed
imminent. The district, already staggering from issues that other urban
districts are facing, the exodus
of well-off families to private and charter schools — whose 14,000
students are roughly 75% nonwhite, 40% low-income, and more than 20% with
special needs — it felt like the type of blow that could echo for generations.
According to Will Oremus, the lead writer, One Zero, at
Medium, Leaders and parent advocates in the district, the Christina School
District in Newark, Del., had been banking on the referendum to pass. They
used a strategy that had always worked in the past. Believing they had a built
compelling case; they had no reason to believe the referendum would not pass.
What they had not counted on, was the role Social Media had taken on.
No Local Journalism Has Consequences
Leaders in Newark, Delaware did not understand the effect
misinformation on the Social Media sight Nextdoor was having on the debate for
convincing residents to raise their own property taxes, often on behalf of kids
other than their own. “Nextdoor posts claimed that the district was squandering
money, that its administrators were corrupt, and that it already spent more
money per student than certain other districts with higher test scores. The
last of those was true — but left out the context that Christina hosts both the
state’s school for the deaf and its largest autism program. Nextdoor evolved
from a listserv where you could find a good plumber to a political platform
where misinformation could easily be shared. well-documented issues with racial
profiling, stereotyping
of the homeless, and political
ranting of various stripes, including
QAnon.[2]
The referendum failed. Nobody was there to check the
veracity of the statements made on social media, or to amplify the points based
on facts and need by the school district. The district faced draconian cuts,
endangering the future of their children and the community.
Social Media Doesn’t Fill the Void
Pew Research reports about half of U.S. adults (53%) say
they get
news from social media “often” or “sometimes,” and this use is spread
out across a number of different sites, according to a survey conducted Aug.
31-Sept. 7, 2020. [3]
Social Media is stepping in to fill the void left by the
disappearance of journalism, especially local newspapers. Since 2004, about
1,800 newspapers have closed in the United States, Penny Abernathy reported in
her research
on news deserts. 1,700 are weeklies. The pace of closures, up till now, has
been about 100 a year. Since the start of the Pandemic, 70 more local
newspapers have closed their doors. Abernathy, a professor at the University of
North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media points out when you
lose a small daily or a weekly, you lose the journalist who was going show up
at your school board meeting, your planning board meeting, your county
commissioner meeting,” she said. Communities lose transparency and accountability.
Then, she said, research shows that
taxes go up and voter participation goes down.
Making Informed Decisions
The right to know is baked into the Constitution. Our
democracy is dependent on a well-informed democracy. National news outlets
continue to survive, but advertising funding for local print journalism has
dried up, closing newsrooms. The collapse of local journalism has created a
crisis for democracy. Residents no longer get the information they need to
understand the critical issues facing their community, to make good decisions
for their family, and hold elected officials accountable.
That Won’t Happen Here
It already has. Regional newspapers are seeing a decline in
reporting. The Hartford Courant has gone from a staff of 450 in 2000 to 50
reporters in 2021. Hartford City Council urges an end to job cuts.
Without resources, the declines will continue. Reporting on urban and rural
issues are critical to Connecticut. Education levels and income levels show a
huge disparity between the suburbs and the rest of the state. According to
Census Data, per capita median household income in Hartford was around $34,000
in 2019. It was just over $104,000 in the next town over, West Hartford. The
disparity in education level is just as eye opening. In Hartford, the
percentage of people with a college education was 17% and 65% in West Hartford.
Uphill Battle
Local Journalism gives voice to the unheard. It also informs
decisions based on facts, and it increases awareness among the influencers and
decision makers in our communities. Part of the solution lies in training new
reporters. Funding new reporters goes beyond creating a new app or collecting
pennies from the paywall. Newsrooms will need to pivot to philanthropy.
Foundations and other organizations are already onboard. Journalism
philanthropy has quadrupled in the last eight years.
The Knight Foundation, PBS News, The Poynter Institute, The Nieman Lab,
Newsrooms Across America, and The American Journalism Project are just a few
examples. We must ask. We can no longer wait for it to come to us.
