Image source: https://www.cagle.com/news/dyingnewspapers/

According to a new report, the disintegration of local news in the United States is causing communities to fall apart and be severely uninformed.

As we all know, the digital age has forced newsrooms to cut costs, let go of staff, and adapt to the online world. If a newsroom can’t manage to keep itself afloat with these methods, then they simply go under, and we see this happening rapidly.

Though, if you’re reading this, you’re privileged enough to have access to any form information you’re looking to received. You can tailor your feed to reporting from sources you trust, set notifications on from news outlets so you’re always up to date, and overall have a unique information consumption experience of your own, on a device that fits in your pocket.

Sadly, this is not the case for every American. Underserved individuals are left in the dark. The New York Times cites a fascinating, and also unsettling statistic from a Pew survey earlier this year, which states that 71% of Americans believe that their local news outlets are doing well financially, with only 14% of Americans donating some amount of money to local newspapers.

People aren’t even aware that their source of information is suffering and is under serious threat. And this can spark a variety of problems.

One of which being the Flint, Michigan water crisis, as The New York Times also cites, where the community had voiced their concerns to their local paper long before national media reported on the issue.

I think it’s important for us to recognize how fortunate we are to have access to the world wide web without a second thought, and at the very least, use our resources wisely and support the communities who need it the most in any way we can.

Source material: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/local-news-disappear-pen-america.html