Strengthen Local News

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

This introductory article was written by ChatGPT at the direction of Heidi Burgess, who reviewed, edited, and approved the final content.
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June 24, 2026

Good local news is a basic part of democratic infrastructure. It tells people what their city councils, school boards, police departments, courts, businesses, neighborhood groups, and local institutions are doing. It helps residents understand land-use decisions, tax proposals, environmental risks, school controversies, crime patterns, public-health problems, and opportunities for civic action. Without this information, people are much less able to participate responsibly in the life of their communities. They may still follow national politics intensely, but know very little about the decisions being made close to home that most directly affect their daily lives.

The loss of local news is therefore a serious problem for constructive conflict and local democracy. When local reporting disappears, people often fill the gap with rumor, partisan national media, social media snippets, or campaign messaging. Local issues then get interpreted through national culture-war frames, even when the actual problem is more practical and more solvable. A dispute over school curriculum, zoning, policing, homelessness, water use, or public health can quickly become another symbolic battle between national political tribes. Strong local journalism can counter this tendency by providing facts, history, context, and a wider range of local voices. It can show where disagreement is real, where it is being exaggerated, and where practical problem solving is still possible.

The business model that once supported local news has been badly damaged. For many years, newspapers depended heavily on advertising revenue, especially classified ads and local commercial advertising. Much of that money moved to online platforms that do not employ local reporters. At the same time, readers became accustomed to getting news for free, while the cost of serious reporting remained high. The State of Local News Project at Northwestern has documented the growth of news deserts and the continued loss of local papers. Pew Research Center has also found that fewer Americans now follow local news very closely, even though most still say local news matters to community well-being.

Ownership changes have made the problem worse in many places. Some local newspapers, television stations, and radio outlets are now owned by large chains or investment firms with limited connection to the communities they serve. Chain ownership does not always eliminate good local reporting, and some local journalists working inside these systems do excellent work. But consolidation often reduces staff, centralizes editorial decisions, and encourages the reuse of regional or national material. This can leave communities with outlets that still look local, but provide less original reporting on local affairs. Research summarized by groups such as Democracy Fund and Rebuild Local News shows why this matters: communities with weaker local journalism tend to have lower voter participation, less accountability, and less capacity to monitor public officials.

Strengthening local news will require a mix of approaches. Some communities are building nonprofit newsrooms, public-service reporting collaborations, university-supported reporting projects, and membership-based local outlets. The Institute for Nonprofit News tracks the growth of nonprofit journalism, including many local and regional organizations that are trying to fill gaps left by shrinking commercial newsrooms. Other proposals include tax credits for local-news subscriptions or newsroom employment, public notices that support local outlets, community information funds, stronger support for public media, and philanthropic investments in reporting on underserved communities. These approaches should protect editorial independence; local news that becomes dependent on government favor or partisan donors can lose the trust it is supposed to build.

The central point is that local news should be understood as a conflict-handling resource. Good reporting can identify emerging disputes before they escalate. It can explain how decisions are made, who is affected, what tradeoffs are involved, and what options are available. It can make public officials more accountable, while also giving citizens a more accurate picture of one another. Rebuilding local news will not, by itself, solve polarization or restore trust in democracy. But without credible local information, communities are forced to argue in the dark. Strengthening local news helps citizens see the problems they actually share, the choices they actually face, and the opportunities they have to work together on the places they call home.

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This page was created by ChatGPT in response to this prompt. It was then reviewed, edited, supplemented and approved by Heidi Burgess. More information about how and why we are using AI in this way, and about the growing number of ways in which Beyond Intractability is using ChatGPT, Claude and other AI systems to generate content and build out the BI system, is available on our BI/AI Overview Page.