State of Local Journalism Assignment

Local journalism and local newspapers is a necessity for everyone. Without it, many individuals would be lost when it comes to their everyday lives.

“Conglomerates are draining every last thing of worth from local newspapers and leaving them to die. Capitalism run amok,” said Kevin Wilcoxon.

More than 1,300 communities across the nation are without any local news or newspapers. If this continues, soon almost everywhere will be without any local news or information at all and will spread like the plague.

What I found interesting within this article was that the decline of local journalism will lead to lower voter turnout, more pollution and even less trust. People will not know what to believe anymore and will start acting according to their own actions. It could lead to danger or even violence.

People will have a lot of misinformation and will lack much knowledge on who to vote for within their communities. That could lead to chaos within the local government.

I agree with the articles statement regarding the local media ecosystem to have a much bigger role for nonprofit media and philanthropy. The problem isn’t going to be solved by having more news apps because not everyone has access to technology, let alone money itself.

I also agree with the articles statement saying that having nonprofit journalism should be no problem because we have already accepted this reality when it comes to education and health care.

We also need more nonprofit news outlets because America isn’t the only solution. We need public radio to focus more on local journalism and to reach a much broader range of people.