Local news is essential for citizens to understand government decision -making, community activities, and the most directly affecting their local problems.Traditional local newspapers act as supervisors, investigate local officials, and promote public participation.Without local news, citizen information will be reduced.To make matters worse, lack of reliable information can lead to the spread of errors, rumors, and bizarre conspiracy theories, and further destroy the trust of democratic processes.
The famous slogan of the Washington Post: "Democracy died in the dark", and it is unfortunately a reality in many places in the United States.The digital era crushed the business model of the newspaper and turned many communities into a "news desert" without local news.Since 2005, about 2,500 newspapers or weekly reports have been closed down, and there are currently less than 6,500.Two people disappear every week.
The decline of local news is driven by many factors, but economic challenges are the most important.At the beginning of the Internet era, the Craigslist replaced the classification advertisement that previously provided funds for newspaper news industry.Subsequently, the emergence of large -scale digital platforms nailed the last nail to the coffin of traditional advertising models.Due to the lack of income, local news media had to lay off layoffs to reduce the scope of reporting or completely closed.
According to the data from the Pew Research Center, from 2008 to 2020, the number of employees of local news institutions in the United States fell by 57%, resulting in thousands of "ghost newspapers" that could hardly report their own communities.Small local newspapers have no scale at all and cannot compete with digital advertising giants such as Google and Facebook.
The integration of the media industry has also impacted the decline of the local news industry.In recent years, many small newspapers have become part of large enterprise groups.These corporate groups are completely focused on profits and are usually at the expense of local reports.As a result, news reports became homogeneous and affected local issues. The editing right was exercised by the company's senior management.
Needless to doubt that local news is essential for citizens to understand government decision -making, community activities, and the most directly affecting them.Traditional local newspapers serve as supervisors, investigate the responsibility of local officials, and promote public participation.Without local news, the information of citizens will decrease, and the possibility of corruption will increase, resulting in a decline in voting voting rate and erosion of the democratic system.To make matters worse, lack of reliable information can lead to the spread of errors, rumors, and bizarre conspiracy theories, and further destroy the trust of democratic processes.
The decline of local journalism has also promoted the polarization of politics.With the decrease in the number and influence of local newspapers, citizens are increasingly relying on national news media, and these media often have more party colors.Without a neutral balance report provided by local media, citizens will be pulled into the echo room, only the media that consumes their existing ideas.The "Filter Bubble" manufactured by social media algorithms means that voters are increasingly lacking the basis of sharing facts and information.As news consumers have become less and less exposed to tit -for -tat, polarization has deepened.
Public funds can fill the community and charity gaps
But so you don't have to do so.Non -profit news agencies, community -supported news and membership -based models are potential alternatives of traditional advertising -driven methods.Most of these models rely on community participation and charitable support, and new joys have become an important force for local journalism in many regions.
For example, in less than 10 years, the non -profit organization Calmatters has increased its reporters reported on California's politics and other issues to 40, providing key information and accountability to the world's fifth largest economy.
In addition, many community foundation has become the target of news fundraising, and in some cases, it has also become a funder for reporters.From climate change, education to unequal issues, large -scale foundations are supporting reporters in the field of concern.Over the past 10 years, the US news industry's charity spending has almost doubled, reaching more than $ 250 million each year (about S $ 342 million).There are more than a dozen funders with TheGuardian.org alone, providing at least $ 500,000 a year.
But there are more jobs to do."Rebuild Local News" and the "Report for American" co -founder Steve Waldman estimates that it will cost 1.5 billion US dollars each year to restore the local journalism industry (about about $ 1.5 billion (about about approximately approximately, about about $ 1.5 billion (about approximately approximately, about about $ 1.5 billion (about approximately, about about $ 1.5 billion (about approximately, about about $ 1.5 billion (approximately about hiring2000,500 reporters, with an annual salary of $ 60,000).Although the amount is large, this is equivalent to 0.02%of the federal government expenditure, or each American is less than 50 cents per month.In contrast, nearly 700 donation funds in the United States have more than $ 1 billion.
To fill this funding gap, it may require a broader public funds.The US government's current expenditure on public media is equivalent to $ 3.16 per capita, most of which are used for public broadcasting companies to support local public television stations and radio stations.At the same time, countries like Germany have per capita expenditure on public media exceeding $ 142.
Some state and local governments are already providing extra funds.For example, the Civil Information Alliance of New Jersey (CIVIC Information Consortium) funded 14 local independent news institutions; New Mexico Local News Fund supported 16 reporters in the state; California recently approved $ 25 million of $ 25 million recentlyBudget appropriation, supports 39 journalists, "focus on communities with insufficient service."Similarly, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington are considering providing tax credit for subscribing and salary expenses for local media.Other states are using some public advertising budgets to support local media institutions in poor communities.
Other bold solutions have also been considered, but they have stagnated.At the federal level, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act should have allocated $ 1 billion to support the tax credit of the local journalism, but it died with a better future bill.Similarly, California's news protection law is also put on hold.If it is promulgated, it will specify that the digital advertising giant will pay the news media to pay "news fees" to the news media when selling advertisements with the news content, and will require publishers to use 70%of funds to protect California's news work.
These measures may be indispensable.The local journalism industry plays a vital role in protecting democracy.But in order to protect these two, we urgently need more business innovation, charitable investment and the public's support for independent media.
Author Laura Tyson has served as the Clinton government
Chairman of the Presidential Economic Consultant Committee
Professor of Has Business College, University of California, Berkeley
Lenny Mendonca is a honorary senior partner of McKinsey
English Original: To Protect Democracy,
Revive Local Journalism
All rights reserved: Project syndicate, 2023.
