Over the years I’ve been writing this blog, one of my more frequent laments has been the collapse of America’s local newspapers. The last time I looked, the United States had lost a over a quarter– 2,100 – of its local newspapers, and that number doesn’t include the “ghost” papers that are theoretically still functioning, but no longer able to adequately cover local news.
What do we lose when we lose local newspapers?
We lose “news you can use” about local government agencies, schools and the goings-on at the State legislature. As I’ve previously noted, we also lose a common information environment that builds community and is more trusted than national media sources. And that trust matters.
Research confirms that the loss of a properly functioning local paper leads to diminished participation in municipal elections, which become less competitive. Corruption goes unchecked, driving costs up for local government. Disinformation proliferates because people turn to social media to get their “facts.”
A recent study confirms the importance of local newspapers to the maintenance of an informed citizenry. I’ve previously reported on a statistic I found stunning (and depressing)–the fact that people who follow the news (presumably including Fox “News”) voted for Harris by a considerable margin, and people who reported seldom or never following the news voted for Trump by a much larger margin. But that finding didn’t distinguish between local and national news sources.
This study–cited by the Local News Initiative-– did.
Donald Trump won the 2024 election with one of the smallest popular-vote margins in U.S. history, but in news deserts – counties lacking a professional source of local news – it was an avalanche. Trump won 91% percent of these counties over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, according to an analysis of voting data by Medill Journalism School’s State of Local News project.
The study didn’t confuse correlation with causation; researchers were careful to note that Trump’s dominance in the country’s news deserts isn’t a simple matter of cause and effect.
That is, people didn’t necessarily vote for Trump because they lack local news. Instead, a simpler and more obvious correlation may be at work: News deserts are concentrated in counties that tend to be rural and have populations that are less educated and poorer than the national average–exactly the kind of places that went strongly for Trump in 2024 and in 2020….
But news deserts do have the potential to affect voting behavior in important ways. When voters lose access to local news, they tend to gravitate toward national news sources, according to research by Joshua P. Darr, a professor of public communications at Syracuse University. This kind of news, by definition, focuses on broad national issues—abortion, immigration, the economy, etc.—without regard to local conditions.
Individuals exposed only to national news are thus unlikely to know how a given candidate’s priorities will affect their cities or states. They base their votes on a few national issues that tend to reinforce basic partisan identities. Voters in news deserts are also more likely to engage in ballot “roll off” – that is, vote for president but leave local and statewide races blank. Others will simply vote a straight ticket for candidates who share the political party of their presidential choice.
Those practices can hardly be considered informed votes by thoughtful citizens–those needed by a democratic system.
Several of the studies I’ve previously cited have found that citizens tend to place more trust in local sources of news than in national media. The absence of a local newspaper doesn’t just deprive them of important information about their own communities–the disappearance of those trusted local sources leaves them with a choice between inadequate alternatives: they may stop following the news altogether, or they may ignore the so-called “legacy” media in favor of less credible sources that reflect their partisan leanings and biases.
I agree with the researchers that Trump’s victory in America’s news deserts is not a “simple matter of cause and effect.” The study’s results should not be reduced to “Trump won because people were uninformed.” But it would be equally wrongheaded to dismiss that argument entirely. It is at least plausible to assume that more information from a more trusted source might have influenced at least some of these voters–if not to withhold a vote for Trump, at least to consider their choices for down-ballot candidates. (The presence of a local newspaper has been found to increase ticket-splitting, for example, indicating more informed voting.)
Life in a news desert leads to more political corruption, higher taxes, lower bond ratings, greater social alienation, misinformation, and loss of social cohesion. It also leads to more votes for enormously unfit candidates.
“Individuals exposed only to national news are thus unlikely to know how a given candidate’s priorities will affect their cities or states.”
Among the local Reds in this state (that has a double meaning with Trump’s idolization of Putin), do they now understand that those employed in many government positions here that Trump and Musk’s control can shut down their jobs and their income? Talk now that some in Congress are considering replacing Speaker Mike Johnson with Elon Musk, an unelected, wealthy BFF of Trump at this time, is forcing federal decisions, his only qualification is his BILLIONS of dollars to buy their loyalty. And he has much more money-in-hand than Trump has ever had. How is Trump ruling the House of Representatives and the Senate prior to being inaugurated? Are “The Uninformed Electorate” yet questioning their decision to vote for the Kingdom of the United States?
Watching the reports coming from MSNBC’s Reid Out last night I had the strangest feeling that I was somehow in a foreign country; will we be forced into ghettos before the end of Trump’s administration. WILL TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION ACTUALLY END WITH THE SCOTUS IMMUNITY GIVING HIM TOTAL REIGN OF THE LAND.?
I have been without the Indianapolis Star daily paper for a number of years now and figured out the dangers we face. I even switched to Fox News channel to see what they were reporting about the Trump/Musk forced collapse of preventing a government shutdown; they were reporting in depth about President Joe Biden’s mental decline being hidden by his White House aides.
“Life in a news desert leads to more political corruption, higher taxes, lower bond ratings, greater social alienation, misinformation, and loss of social cohesion. It also leads to more votes for enormously unfit candidates.”
Chicken Little is right; the sky IS falling!
Well I’d have to say, there might not be an end to the Trump administration! Why do you think he told the evangelicals that they don’t need to worry about ever voting again. So he is planning on doing away with elections in some form or fashion. And, if he doesn’t get the type of boot licking he desires, he will eat his own. Just like an anaconda swallowing a python. Both snakes, both voraciously hungry. You’ve got Musk, who has already received some of his bosses ire. The true Musk has come out of the closet so to speak, he’s 100% Nazi. He sets at the trough of the public dole, like a 1 ton sow, sucking up every little bit of slop he can get his snout on. And when the slop runs out, what happens? That sow Will attack and eat the one that’s been feeding it. Kind of a gross analogy, but it’s factual! That happened in Germany, night of the Long knives, and the burning down of the Reichstag, to get the citizens backing so they could murder all of the communists. With the political competition gone, they could focus on demonizing the Jews and many others who really couldn’t fight back. All with the blessing of the citizenry. Anything that was contradictory to the Nazi slant on everything, was called “lugenpresse” which means ‘lying press’ or ‘fake news!’ when someone tells you at the top of their lungs with no hesitation who they are, it’s best to pay attention! January 20th is approaching quick, and you got a bunch of simpletons twiddling their thumbs. People always wondered why the German citizens went along with their demented leader, this is an abject lesson, an opportunity to study cause and effect in this age of information!
It really is just race shaming, blaming misfortune on those even less fortunate. It’s one of powerful white men’s favorite pastime, stoking hatred and division to acquire political standing and power. The top of the food chain will eat everything below it. It doesn’t matter how loyal or how useful, once the power is secured, stick a fork in’em, They are all done.
Readiness exercise 84, on steroids!
The goal is an informed electorate, which is a good slogan, but often, the devil is in the details. What are they?
Ideally, the goal should be an informed population, and that requires public education that takes in five-year-olds and, after a minimum of 12 years, produces responsible proto-adults for further education in life, work, family, and civics. Of course, that also takes responsible, involved, loving, and fully developed adults as parents.
They are not fully developed humans yet, though. That requires life.
That is a generational cycle, so that process must continue from birth to death for the entire population.
This sounds cliche, but producing and maintaining a functional country is necessary to gain and maintain a front-row seat among countries.
Politics is based on selecting a government system to organize a population, take advantage of its diversity, and involve adults in selecting or becoming leaders to maintain law and order to maintain a front-row seat among countries.
How are we doing?
JoAnn, Putin is not a “Red,” as in referring to communists, as Russia has not been communist state for many years, and Trump’s ability to push his agenda at this point in time is all about his ability to intimidate.
Musk, who is, apparently, an illegal alien, ought to be picked up by ICE, and sent packing. Speaker of the house?
I’m glad I’m old!
My extremely rural Indiana county has one newspaper left and it is published once a week. For 35-45 years it was a free newspaper delivered or mailed to every household. As manufacturers left the county and businesses closed they took with them the advertising dollars that enabled the weekly paper to be free. For maybe the first 30 years they were able to employ enough staff to actually report on local city government, county council and commissioner meetings. The general population is not able to attend the county council and county commissioner meetings because they were and still are held at 9:00 am on weekdays. Those political offices have always been held by farmers and (rarely) local small business owners. By scheduling their meetings during daytime hours when most people are at work and unable to take time off to attend them has enabled those political office holders to make decisions without public input or questions.
The county office holders have always been ‘good old boys clubs’ that took care of themselves and their personal interests first. This is finally changing. For the first time ever in my county the three person county commissioner team will have a woman and also an employee of a local business whose owner is generous enough to allow one of his salaried employees to become a commissioner without losing any income or his job. The lone farmer that wasn’t up for reelection in November will be the odd man out for the next two years. Yesterday I spoke with one of the newly elected commissioners and he shared that he has already upset the current commissioners multiple times. He has attended every commissioner meeting for the past year and spoke up when he disagreed with their ideas. He stated that the newly elected female commissioner has also attended meetings for the past year and also speaks up. They already plan to change the hours of the meetings to enable citizens to attend them.
Regarding the weekly newspaper that is left – a little over a year ago it not only started charging for a subscription, but became a shell of its former self. It now wastes paper by publishing all of the local school menus and other uninteresting blather – nothing about local government. Parents of school age children can and do access their lunch menus online. I just received my renewal notice, but had already decided not to renew because they no longer publish anything of newsworthy value.
WILL TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION ACTUALLY END WITH THE SCOTUS IMMUNITY GIVING HIM TOTAL REIGN OF THE LAND.?
JoAnn — yes! And actually it will probably be to whatever clown Trump anoints as successor of the realm. In the mean time, because he has immunity, he can do whatever he dam well pleases.
Where are the voices of Biden and Harris in this mess? And other Democrats? They should be shouting from the rooftops in such a way that the media will have to cover them. Harris said recently “We don’t give up.” Well, I’m waiting for her to get out there!!
John Sorg, boom! 🙂
As a student of local media, in this case, Gannett-owned local press, I found it trash initially. It was heavily slanted in favor of the local oligarchy. The newspaper kissed the asses of the Ball family and had been doing that for generations in ECI. Never did they point out that the Ball family engineered institutional racism in our community. Although there is no way to prove it, I suspect they were also behind the local KKK, which was rampant in this community at one time, and even shot a Democratic mayor.
Amazingly, the same people who were in the KKK would be part of the Tea Party movement, which has morphed into MAGA.
Their depiction of a no-nothing racist Republican mayor was the final catastrophe in the community. Their death was hidden from the community as their signs were allowed to stay up on buildings owned by Ball descendants even though the paper had no physical address. As the paper died, the Ball family used the local conservative radio station and the Chamber (which they single-handedly fund) to replace the propaganda printed in the newspaper. It was an outlet to print news releases. LOL
As for news deserts in rural Indiana, it was a transition because Hoosiers watched Fox on cable for their 6 pm evening news, which was fairly neutral, but then sneakily switched to Fox News at 8pm for the “fair and balanced news.” It was anything but fair and balanced. The problem was the ignorant masses thought Fox News was the standard for neutrality and expected that from their local newspapers. I can remember the comments in the IndyStar lamenting the paper had become “liberal trash.” Gannett papers were never liberal. Not even close!
Digital advertising via Google was the death knell of local newspapers. Businesses could advertise directly online and reach their customers at a fraction of what Gannett charged. Their monopoly on advertising dollars disappeared, and that was game over.
The East and West Coast news trash are all cutting deals with the devil to stay relevant, but they’re not with the young crowd who knows how to find real journalism versus liberal and conservative trash. Our entire country is a news desert now because if the oligarchy owns it, it’s heavily biased. What we get fed is steady streams of propaganda.
They will tear Luigi Mangione to shreds in all the major news outlets because the oligarchy can’t allow more attacks against themselves. Those worried about bloodshed haven’t read a US history book. Without bloodshed, we’d still be ruled by the British!
Vive la révolution!
Today, thanks to the introduction of the Internet, we have easy access to past news stories that have been banned from the newspapers. Three examples, only the first of which is now widely known in the U.S. are the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the 1811 New Orleans German Coast slave uprising, and the 1955 Cutter Polio Vaccine contamination. The Tulsa incident is now covered by PBS, the German Coast event has only in recent years been mentioned by the New Orleans press, and discussion of the Cutter event remains banned from the news.
Today, I am struck by the number of young people whom I count as among the “informed electorate.” Two students I recently overheard talking, and spoke to, identified themselves as “poly-sci majors.” Their detailed knowledge extended from the Wilson administration, forward, and included information far beyond the general narrative and into the years-long bases for world conflict which is never found in “America’s local newspapers.”
Americans’ shift from newspapers to Internet for national, world and local news has actually been a good thing, because major news advertisers (e.g. pharmaceutical industry) have no influence on what is broadcast. Americans who wish to take the time to research, are discovering the story-behind-the-story and are voting accordingly.
Kathy M:
Copied and pasted from one of the many posts when I Googled Russia as a Red State: “These self-imposed boundaries, which Putin has repeatedly warned must not be crossed, were intended to deter Western intervention and Ukrainian advances by threatening severe repercussions. Yet, as the conflict has unfolded, both Ukraine and its Western allies have tested these limits with little apparent consequence. This discrepancy between Putin’s rhetoric and Russia’s responses has led experts to scrutinize the true nature of these threats, revealing a far more nuanced and strategic use of “red lines” than initially perceived.”
Gordon, if the political science majors didn’t know about these episodes in our history, they should be kicked out of the program. I went to school long before the Internet. I got my info from the libraries and their microfiche files. It took days to find what I was looking for, but it was all there: massacres, spies, Nazis, Communists. Sometimes you found items, usually, just a few lines about something like the Tulsa massacre in a local newspaper. If you didn’t understand the language you would never think about what they might be saying. If you do get it, there are other sources you can find. If you can find diaries you hit pay dirt.
Today, the internet makes those searches easier. You don’t have to go from one library to another. You can connect to most of the worlds’ libraries in seconds and scrolling down the page on your computer is a lot easier than scrolling down a microfiche.
Just to clarify another comment, Russia was never a Communist country, despite Lenin’s best attempts. As soon as Stalin took the reins, it became what it still is, an oligarchy, where the ministers got the cream and the proletariat got the leavings. When I asked people about Putin, they said that as long as the shelves in GUM (the government owned big box store) were full, they would support him.
Thanks Peggy for your enthusiastic response, and your clarification going back to 1917, “Russia was never a Communist country, despite Lenin’s best attempts.”
Addressing your comment, and Todd’s, simultaneously, “Without bloodshed, we’d still be ruled by the British!” Who actually was Leon Trotsky (who was born in Ukraine), why did Lenin appoint him military leader of the Bolsheviks, and who, actually, was Trotsky working for?
Again, this is information that the poly-sci majors would have to work to find!
Gordon, if you’re interested in Trotsky and the real leftists like the Socialist Equality Party, I’d strongly recommend subscribing to the WSWS website. If you try to find them independently, they are hard to find because Google throttles them in their search engines and defunds their YouTube accounts.
Here is one of their most recent videos, including the author, David North:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/12/20/dqzz-d20.html?
I have to admit that I am part of the problem. As a longtime expat absentee voter, I’m not really familiar with the local issues, much less the local candidates. I cast my ballots for the top few races and leave the local down ballot races unchecked.