Journalism's Market Failure Is a Crisis for Democracy

[Thaddeus]

Journalism’s Market Failure Is a Crisis for Democracy
Published in Harvard Business Review
by @VWPickard


Local journalism is failing in the United States. Many of us learn in school that a free society requires a free press, but we rarely reflect on what it actually means to lose the fourth estate. Democracies need independent, fact-based journalism to provide a voice for a diverse range of people, to watchdog the powerful, and to keep members of a society informed. Study after study has found that without access to local news, people are less civically engaged and less likely to vote. The demise of local newspapers — which are still by far the main source of original reporting in their communities — is also linked to a rise in local corruption and an increase in polarization, as news consumers rely more on partisan-inflected national outlets for their information.

This crisis arose because the news media’s commercial imperatives never fully aligned with democratic objectives. The market simply can’t support the levels of journalism — especially local, but also international, policy, and investigative reporting — that a healthy democracy requires. Arguably, this has always been the case, but it’s especially true today, as newspapers are hollowed out or closed down across the country, leaving vast news deserts in their wake. All of us who wish for a democratic future — including the business community — have a stake in ensuring that local news media survives. We must come together to build a media ecosystem that treats journalism as an essential public service.


Read the rest here: https://hbr.org/2020/03/journalisms-market-failure-is-a-crisis-for-democracy