Why Local Matters The Three Major Impacts of Local News
Scholars have studied the influence of local newspapers on society for over a century. Beginning with turn-of-the-century academics like Gabriel Tarde in France, research showed how newspapers help form and solidify communities, and crystalize public opinion by provoking conversation.5 Later, researchers from the Chicago School of sociology documented how newspapers help immigrant communities both integrate in, and define themselves against, the American melting pot.6 7
Current research informs us about how newspapers assist in voting decisions, continue to foster community identity and solidarity, and—as is often the case with small-town newspapers—act as community champions.8 As Jock Lauterer writes, these papers (what he calls “community newspapers”) are “relentlessly local” and provide “affirmation of the sense of community, a positive and intimate reflection of the sense of place, and stroke for our us-ness, our extended family-ness and our profound and interlocking connectedness.”9
While digital technologies have certainly impacted these roles and responsibilities, the core mission of local newspapers remains unchanged.10 Based on our review of recent academic research, we identified three key areas where local news and newspapers add clear value to American life, specifically in the areas of democracy, community, and media ecosystems. Understanding this contribution provides useful context for our own research.
1. The value to democracy
First and foremost, newspapers—both large and small—perform an important watchdog role: acting as the public’s eyes and ears against those in power.11 12 Steve Barnett emphasizes their important role in likewise representing communities back to the powers-that-be and campaigning on behalf of the community itself.13
For her part, Penelope Muse Abernathy notes five democratic functions of local newspapers in her book Saving Community Journalism:
Being the primary source for local, original reporting
Defining the public agenda
Encouraging economic growth and commerce
Fostering a sense of geographic community
Helping us understand our vote14
This final function on Abernathy’s list is a particularly important relationship—that between voters and newspapers. Studies by Jack McLeod, for instance, identify a relationship between local media consumption and “institutionalized participation”—actions like voting and contacting local officials—concluding “it is clear that communication plays a central role in stimulating and enabling local political participation.”15 16 Lee Shaker’s study of Seattle and Denver, two cities where newspapers had recently stopped printing, echoed these results. Shaker found that both “Seattle and Denver suffered significant negative declines in civic engagement when they lost one of their daily newspapers.”17 The relationship between newspaper reading and civic engagement was again confirmed by Sam Shulhofer-Wohl and Miguel Garrido, who studied the closure of The Cincinnati Post in 2007 and observed a reduction in the competitiveness of elections.18 In helping community members determine their vote, newspapers provide for what is now called the “information needs of communities.” This has been defined as: “those forms of information that are necessary for citizens and community members to live safe and healthy lives; have full access to educational, employment, and business opportunities; and to fully participate in the civic and democratic lives of their communities should they choose.”19
2. Value to the community
Building on the information needs of communities, newspapers also create community and help people feel more attached to where they live.
To do this, they take on numerous roles: informing the community about itself;20 21 performing a ritualistic function as part of readers’ everyday lives22 and providing a sense of comfort to readers and viewers;23 helping communities understand themselves and shape their identities;24 25 setting the standards and norms of the community;26 positioning themselves as the conduit between global events and local conversations;27 28 and transcribing the first record of history for many American communities.29
Acting as a local champion is another way local newspapers help fashion, maintain, and celebrate community solidarity and identity.30. These media outlets not only serve a specific place, but actively help to create it by defining its contours and boundaries.31
Findings show that these community-building and solutions-oriented functions are particularly important and valuable for minority and immigrant communities, both in helping them assimilate to their host country and to stay connected to family and friends abroad.32 33
In performing these roles, small-market newspapers also modify the watchdog function discussed above. Here, community members are often more interested in newspapers’ ability to be a “good neighbor” rather than an attack dog.34 35
To do so, small-market newspapers often focus on solutions rather than just identify problems. This departs from traditional concepts of objectivity in American journalism, bringing it more in line with the tenets of public journalism and civic journalism.36 Today, these characteristics are increasingly reflected through the lens of “solutions journalism.”37
3. Value to media ecosystems
Newspapers remain an integral part of the local media ecosystem. Indeed, they are often the only news voice in a community.38 Even when they’re not, they still perform the bulk of original reporting. In his 2009 book, Losing the News, Alex Jones asserts that newspapers account for eighty-five percent of all accountability news within a media ecosystem.39
Unfortunately, Jones does not provide an explanation for how he came to this figure. A 2010 study by the Pew Research Center on Baltimore, however, did discover that newspapers accounted for nearly half (forty-eight percent) of the original reporting in the city during the time period covered.40 Taken at face value, this suggests that the bulk of stories covered by television and cable news find their origins in newspaper reporting.
Nevertheless, we cannot discount the fact that the prominence of newspapers as a media source for consumers has declined as readers gravitate toward a plethora of other sources.
This led Nielsen to argue that even though newspapers may have lost their status as “mainstream media,” they nonetheless serve as “keystone media” by existing as “the primary providers of a specific and important kind of information and enable other media’s coverage.” Their ongoing decline has severe “ecological consequences that reach well beyond their own audience.”41