What is a News Desert?

Since the dawn of the 2000s there has been a sharp decline in both the quantity and quality of traditional news sources, most notably local newspapers. On the regional level, this lack of information about non-national topics has created a void, leaving millions of Americans in rural areas with access to only national news sources. A lack of local news, creates what is known as a "news desert," a term popularized by Laura Washington. In these news deserts, the void of local news makes it so individuals are not receiving important information about local and regional issues and politics. It also creates a divide in communities, as individuals become disconnected and unaware of local occurrences. News deserts have been becoming more prominent since the 2010s, and even more today with digital media's takeover. The prevention of news deserts is crucial to the success of local and national politics.

Why does this happen?

A news desert is created by a lack of local news being pumped into an area. Many rural towns and communities no longer receive local newspapers, which for a long time were the predominant source of political and general information. A news desert is created when the owners of the newspaper pull their product from an area, mostly due to budget constraints and the transition to more digital sources of information. This development has sharply decreased the quantity of local newspapers in production. Furthermore, many newspapers have been purchased by larger companies or investment companies. This results in a serious diminishing of newspaper quality, as formerly reputable news sources become underfunded or change in content. The drop in quality then causes people to stop buying them, further decreasing funding, and entering a cycle of bad quality, and low quantity local newspapers. As a result of decreasing local newspaper sources there is now an issue of supply and demand, further sending regions into these news deserts.

Consequences:

The immediate consequences of news deserts are that individuals in rural, often less economically developed regions are no longer getting access to important local news. This news is crucial to informing its readers about local politics, policies, and issues like taxation that directly impact their daily lives. Additionally, having a void with no local news diminishes the ability for "grass-roots activism" to thrive and grow. This is one of the most important forms of political activism, as it allows for participation and change at the local level. Having these news deserts, and populations uninformed of the daily politics that affects them erodes democracy. News deserts also feed polarization in the U.S. Since there is a lack of regional information, individuals turn to national news sources, such as network news for their only source of political information. Since these sources are owned by large companies, and often politically affiliated, they offer little alternative to viewers, and spark further polarization. Consuming only polarized national news also makes political issues seem much more critical. A policy debate in one region of the U.S. is presented as imminently dangerous to all who are watching. In reality, a local newspaper would provide much needed context to these policy issues, and reflect how they actually impact community members. Also, many people do not watch or have cable news. Since they may also be in a news desert, this leaves them with no information, meaning people are left with no news or political information, and thus lose interest in important issues. As a result of news deserts, individuals in rural areas become ill-informed on important local issues and news, and polarized by national media outlets. Local politics become seemingly less important than national politics, even though they are both very important.

Today:

In the present age of media, individuals often do not have access to local newspapers anymore. Turning to social media, and network news, they are met with highly polarized sources of politics, leaving them questioning what is happening. The Washington Post reported in 2022 that by 2025 one third of local newspapers that existed 20 years ago will no longer be operating. This has serious consequences for the ability for Americans to remain informed, and to participate in local politics and in issues that affect their lives at a regional level. Losing access to longstanding newspapers would negatively impact the state of democracy in the U.S. A solution is to keep funding local newspapers, and to not sell them to larger companies, despite opportunities to do so. The dilution of newspaper quality only makes people turn to other, more polarizing sources to gather their information. news deserts present a dangerous situation for Americans, but it can be fixed by funding traditional news sources, and emphasizing the importance of local politics. In the age of digital media, there are also many tools that can be utilized to improve and widely distribute local papers.

What media sources do you still consume? Do you find that maintaining newspapers is important to democracy?

Images:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62693815@N03/6276688407

https://nara.getarchive.net/media/foreign-language-newspapers-published-in-the-united-states-are-displayed-and-8a0099

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_newspapers_in_the_United_States_by_presence_of_Infobox_newspaper_in_their_English_Wikipedia_article.png

The Loss of Traditional News Sources

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What is a News Desert?

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