CalMatters’ Post

For the Agora Journalism Center, I recently authored a new (and hopefully super accessible and digestible) Literature Review looking at Media Policy Options for Rebuilding Local News in the USA. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gppJS5R3 The review explores the scope of media policy, potential barriers and possibilities, as well as a recap of recent /current policy efforts. This research is part of a wider project, supported by the Agora Journalism Center, looking at policy and funding possibilities to help rebuild — and develop a more robust, diverse and inclusive — local news system — in the United States. #journalism #media #local #news #localnews #policy #mediapolicy #publicpolicy

We need to be clear about what LOCAL news is. It is not, for the subjects in either of the two studies cited, newspapers published in larger cities. The subjects were statewide or in an exurban county that was served by a good LOCAL newspaper. I suggest that a much better measurement of the demand for local news in almost any U.S. county is the household penetration of the newspaper(s) in that county, which is obtainable from the annual sworn statements of the newspapers. Metro dailies’ penetration has dropped to around 10 percent but rural weeklies remains around 30 percent, at least in the jurisdictions with which I am familiar. While news consumers appear to have shifted some of their local and state news interest to national news, perhaps due to social media and the personalities that drive it, I believe there will always be a demand for reliable news of localities, from large counties to small towns, depending on how the audience defines its locality of most interest.

The crisis facing journalism is a crisis for democracy. We believe it matters who tells the story, and so supporting journalists who come from the communities they serve - whether they are specific neighborhoods or communities connected by immigrant experience, culture or language - is a way to reinvigorate journalism and strengthen representative democracy.

Why is local journalism important? From the New York State Bar Association: “Strong local news organizations have the ability to not only educate us as citizens, but also show us how we’re connected to people we may not know we’re connected to.” Many of these local news organizations are dying out or being bought out by larger national organizations, however, decreasing their effectiveness at emphasizing their local character and promoting subsidiarity, or empowering localities to make change. How do we fix it? That’s where we come in. We hope to provide a voice for the forgotten of flyover country, by serving as a news outlet covering Central Indiana, run by students, and primarily for students, bridging the gap between the campus and the wider world. We know that family and local communities are an essential part of our democracy, and we know local journalism helps sustain both. Students, however, are in a period of transition in both areas, trying to figure out their place in the community and in their families. The question we have asked ourselves in starting this paper, then, is how do we help them find their place? “This must be a collaborative effort, including journalists, local activists and residents, educators, business leaders, media owners, nonprofit groups, regulators and legal experts. It will take a community of individuals and institutions working together to nurture the sort of strong local journalism that revives trust in our local media, engenders strong attachment to our communities, and feeds our democracy at the grassroots level.” Everything seems to come down to relationships. If we can help students better understand how they depend on their community and how their community depends on them, that’s an important first step to figuring out their place in the world. So that’s the mission behind the news. Life matters. Community matters. Students matter. #new #local #philosophy #mission #inclusion #sanctityoflife #prolife #wholelifeethic #relationships https://lnkd.in/gzsZXwFA.

It's wild that it's 5 years since Molly de Aguiar finished The Listening Project [https://lnkd.in/gCUMedaj] and yet visionaries like Kendall Trammell are still having to recommend consulting the audience about the type of stories they want covered. Some of the topics Kendall suggests ("If there’s an audience, it’s news. The latest in the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance matters. So does advice on how much to tip your barista. And stories about lost airline baggage found thanks to the smart use of AirTags.") overlap with findings from the 2022 Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism paper on how young people define 'news' (much more broadly than older audiences, or - indeed - journalists themselves) [https://lnkd.in/ggT4sBA9]. From the RISJ study: "Younger audiences often distinguish between ‘the news’ as the narrow, traditional agenda of politics and current affairs and ‘news’ as a much wider umbrella encompassing topics like sports, entertainment, celebrity gossip, culture, and science. This is reflected, for instance, in the examples of ‘news’ our interview participants shared: from stories about the world’s biggest strawberry to pollution on local beaches to the latest episode of Big Brother." So over the Christmas break, if you're worried about 'news avoidance', think about whether you're producing "news to avoid" identified in the RISJ study, and design a process for 2024 to consult your audience to ask the hard questions: 1) do you want this content? and 2) if not, what do you want? The data you collect will help you plan your editorial diary for 2024. #journalism #newsmedia #newspapers #audienceengagement

This is very promising. One critical part of infrastructure building involves improving access to news.

Ten local newspapers die every month in America, and as a result, there are now 204 counties across the United States defined as “news deserts” with no local newspaper to inform, enlighten and serve as a watchdog. Amidst the decline of local news, inspiring and providing resources for young journalists is vital in creating a new generation of reporters that covers their local communities with on-the-ground reporting. “We need people willing to provide a trusted set of facts for communities to make good decisions," Charles Sennott writes in this week’s edition of our newsletter. “Democracy can only function if there is strong local reporting that pulls communities together around a shared set of facts brought to them by people who place the facts over any ideology or emotion. In other words, journalism is not just a career, it is a calling.” Learn more by reading this week’s edition of our newsletter, which highlights the importance of young journalists and our initiative Report for America's first-ever Student Journalism Awards. https://lnkd.in/eHrnhmzx #localnews #journalism #college #students

Today, many rural newsrooms across the #US find it hard to hire fully-trained journalists. Earn Your Press Pass is helping solve this problem, by training local community members in the fundamentals of journalism. Read how here: https://buff.ly/3PvlPYl #digital #training #journalism

ICYMI: Opinion from Brian Eule of the Heising-Simons Foundation: A well-informed public is crucial for democracy to thrive, and journalism is an essential service — a public good — needed to make that happen. It’s just that we need to redefine how we think about journalism and profit. 

From fragmented audiences and disappearing ad revenue to the rise of social media misinformation, online journalism faces several major challenges. In our latest article, we break down the state of the industry and speak with two seasoned journalists, Harry Harris and Ed Walker, to get their insights on what they think the future holds. Learn more about how journalism is adapting to an ever-changing environment: https://lnkd.in/eYkuRj3h