The Information Gap in America

My new piece for the American Communities Project looks at where local news is scarce and why it matters. Here are the first two paragraphs:

As information warfare roils the global landscape, local news outlets in the U.S. continue to dwindle. Two-thirds of America’s 3,142 counties do not have a daily newspaper, according to Northwestern University’s report “The State of Local News in 2022.” And an American Communities Project analysis of the data finds the most rural county types are the most lacking.

More than 200 counties (6%) are news deserts with no local newspaper at all. An absence of local news is tied to lower voter participation as well as increases in corruption, misinformation, polarization, and distrust in media, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism report.

Read the full story.