Image: Afrika ufundi/pexels.com Back in 2009, I penned a short story based on the old television show Quantum Leap for an international writing contest.* Titled “No Greater Leap,” the story finds Sam as a 1980s small-town newspaper reporter who discovers tainted water wells poisoning residents. Sam risks his life to reveal the contamination before it kills a child, and he brings down the businessman trying to hide it.
I set the story in the 1980s because that’s when I, too, worked for a small daily newspaper in a rural county. I knew how such a newsroom operated, how small-town politics can play into things, and how a wet-behind-the-ears journalist might approach the story.
Most importantly, I understood the importance of a local newspaper back then. Long before social media, it was the place people gathered to find out what was happening, share opinions, and be exposed to other perspectives and analyses.
Decades later, that community gathering place appears to be leaping into an abyss.
Local news is shadowing the industry’s long decline, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. Just 21% of Americans say they follow local news, down 16 percentage points in the past decade. Local TV still leads the pack—down 7 percentage points since 2018—but online resources are growing rapidly. Only about a third of people who follow local news turn to newspapers.
There are two ways to look at this.
One involves acknowledging that the tools have changed. Why wait for a newspaper to land on your porch, or for a TV newscast to air, when you can open a browser on your smartphone whenever you like? The immediacy of today’s news vehicles makes it much easier for consumers to keep up.
Still, the other view could explain not just the spiral of any one medium but also the decline in interest in local news. Getting news from online forums and discussion groups risks constricting the breadth of views and analysis. There’s a temptation to live within an echo chamber, to sign on to a digital forum where your own viewpoint is affirmed and unchallenged.
A healthy community depends on people who are informed—meaning they understand the breadth and depth of local news, even if it doesn’t affect them directly. They listen to a wide array of opinions and perspectives. They indulge in thoughtful analysis and dialogue.
Online platforms, often built around clicks and shortened attention spans, rarely offer that service.
To be fair, there’s room for both approaches to local news. I don’t advocate kicking it old-school for old-school’s sake. But I worry that we aren’t addressing the fundamental problem.
Access and relevance will always be key drivers of local news success. But rather than relying on clicks and likes for content, we need to find the secret to challenging people to care.
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* Quantum Leap was a 1989-93 NBC TV series in which the protagonist, Dr. Sam Beckett (portrayed by Scott Bakula) is trapped on a journey through time. Beckett “leaps” into other people's bodies to fix where their lives go wrong. Fun fact: “No Greater Leap” took second place worldwide. Scott Bakula congratulated me, signed my manuscript, and posed for this photo. To my surprise, you can still download the story from the contest website.
I set the story in the 1980s because that’s when I, too, worked for a small daily newspaper in a rural county. I knew how such a newsroom operated, how small-town politics can play into things, and how a wet-behind-the-ears journalist might approach the story.
Most importantly, I understood the importance of a local newspaper back then. Long before social media, it was the place people gathered to find out what was happening, share opinions, and be exposed to other perspectives and analyses.
Decades later, that community gathering place appears to be leaping into an abyss.
Local news is shadowing the industry’s long decline, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. Just 21% of Americans say they follow local news, down 16 percentage points in the past decade. Local TV still leads the pack—down 7 percentage points since 2018—but online resources are growing rapidly. Only about a third of people who follow local news turn to newspapers.
There are two ways to look at this.
One involves acknowledging that the tools have changed. Why wait for a newspaper to land on your porch, or for a TV newscast to air, when you can open a browser on your smartphone whenever you like? The immediacy of today’s news vehicles makes it much easier for consumers to keep up.
Still, the other view could explain not just the spiral of any one medium but also the decline in interest in local news. Getting news from online forums and discussion groups risks constricting the breadth of views and analysis. There’s a temptation to live within an echo chamber, to sign on to a digital forum where your own viewpoint is affirmed and unchallenged.
A healthy community depends on people who are informed—meaning they understand the breadth and depth of local news, even if it doesn’t affect them directly. They listen to a wide array of opinions and perspectives. They indulge in thoughtful analysis and dialogue.
Online platforms, often built around clicks and shortened attention spans, rarely offer that service.
To be fair, there’s room for both approaches to local news. I don’t advocate kicking it old-school for old-school’s sake. But I worry that we aren’t addressing the fundamental problem.
Access and relevance will always be key drivers of local news success. But rather than relying on clicks and likes for content, we need to find the secret to challenging people to care.
=====================
* Quantum Leap was a 1989-93 NBC TV series in which the protagonist, Dr. Sam Beckett (portrayed by Scott Bakula) is trapped on a journey through time. Beckett “leaps” into other people's bodies to fix where their lives go wrong. Fun fact: “No Greater Leap” took second place worldwide. Scott Bakula congratulated me, signed my manuscript, and posed for this photo. To my surprise, you can still download the story from the contest website.
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