Local journalism is necessary for a healthy democracy

How keeping communities informed holds the powerful accountable

Katie Paris, founder of Red Wine & Blue, and Heather Cox Richardson, an American academic historian, author, and educator know that preserving democracy depends on empowering communities. Red Wine & Blue is an organization with over half a million members, 125 grassroots groups in 37 states, and over 4,000 electoral relational organizing volunteers. Heather’s extremely successful “Letters from an American” newsletter is about the history behind today's politics and has over 1.2 million subscribers on Substack.

Listen to today’s special podcast episode with Katie and Heather - two powerful women working to preserve democracy every day.

(Photo credit: Jen Perez)

Another key component to a healthy democracy is local journalism. But, it’s in crisis. According to the American Journalism Project, 2,500 newspapers have closed, 1,800 communities are without a local newsroom, and 60% of journalism jobs no longer exist. A decline in original reporting leads to a less informed public.

When the public is less informed, accountability for government officials declines and corporate malfeasance goes unchecked. Citizens become more apathetic and less likely to vote. That’s when democracy starts to lose its foundation.

Local news has always been a cornerstone of American democracy. It’s how you know how local tax dollars are being spent, what’s been discussed at school board meetings, and if local elected officials are meeting constituent needs. Yet, most of us haven’t been paying attention to the fact that local news sources are on the brink of collapse. And how many of us pay for local news anymore?

PEN America’s “Losing the News” draws on dozens of interviews and a comprehensive analysis of emerging and existing research to make an impassioned case for why local journalism matters for communities and for democracy.

Here are some of their key findings.

• With the shift to digital and the upending of circulation patterns, tech giants have siphoned the majority of advertising revenue for content paid for and produced by news outlets.

• Local newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations are being bought and consolidated by hedge funds and media conglomerates and often subjected to relentless cost cutting—leading to coverage that is more national, less diverse, and, in some cases, more politically polarized.

• Many of the communities traditionally underserved by legacy local media—communities of color, low-income communities, and communities in rural areas—are those most affected by its decline.

What can we do?

• SUBSCRIBE to and join membership programs for local news outlets.

• DONATE to local news outlets (such as public media and nonprofit outlets).

• INFORM news outlets of local stories that need to be told.

This last one is especially important as we are the ones experiencing the day to day activities in our communities and we deserve to have our needs met by our local officials.

In Margaret Sullivan’s book “Ghosting The News” she tells the story of one woman’s radical approach to citizen-generated news. Alice Dreger became frustrated when there were no professional journalists covering her town of East Lansing, Michigan so she and some other community members started a local “discussion list” online, which grew to include coverage of meetings, efforts to free up government documents, and long features about local issues.

A few years later, Dreger turned her “voluntary citizen-reporting project” into a nonprofit corporation call East Lansing Info. One of the most notable and surprising results of this is how a group of amateur reporters made East Lansing residents appreciative of professional journalism. Dreger has found that people “are having energetic conversations about the meaning and purpose of news.”

That’s similar to what Heather Cox Richardson did when she started her “Letters from an American” Substack. With her own time and knowledge, she’s provided millions of Americans with the information they need to stay informed on our modern politics.

That’s what we’re trying to do with The Suburban Women Problem - invoke energetic conversations and help suburban women transform their own lives and get political for the first time. Join us for Season 5 starting next week!