by (Recorder of Georgia) Both domestically in Georgia and nationally, local news is still declining. Since 2002, the number of local journalists nationwide has decreased by 75%, according to a recent local journalism report from Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack.
Steve Waldman, the founder of Rebuild Local Journalism, stated during a webinar on Thursday that the new research and project aims to develop an index that could be replicated annually down to the county level and a measure of journalists per population. The absence of coverage and the shortage of reporters in communities are the main causes of the local news crisis, which is why we all thought that was significant.
According to the research, which was made public on Thursday, there is a serious and pervasive lack of local journalists. Local Journalist Equivalents (LJEs), a novel metric that assesses the quality of local journalism using a formula, is used to quantify this shortfall. Verifiable bylines, reporting capacity based on variables including publishing frequency, and outlet types were used to define LJEs. State-specific indicators and national trends were then displayed using this data.
The national average for local journalists in 2002 was roughly 40 per 100,000. An average of 8.2 Local Journalist Equivalents is now the average. Georgia is now ranked No. 46 in this year’s rankings because its average is far lower than that figure.
Georgia has an average of 5.8 Local Journalist Equivalents per 100,000 residents, with a total population of 11 million. Compared to the top-ranked state of Vermont, which has an average of 27.5, this average was far lower. Nevada had the lowest average of 4.8 local journalists, four spots behind Georgia.
Even though local news is declining, the survey demonstrates that neglected groups are not limited to rural areas. Several rapidly expanding regions, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles, also performed worse than the national average.
According to veteran reporter and Georgia First Amendment Foundation president emeritus Richard T. Griffiths, local journalists are not the only ones affected by the ongoing erosion of local media.
Griffiths stated that democracy itself will be the ultimate victim of this, not the sector. The institutions that support our society and democracy will collapse if the people don’t comprehend what’s happening in their town because there aren’t any reporters present to attend meetings and learn about it.
Griffiths pointed to the decline of local news as being mostly caused by declining advertising spending and the emergence of social media. Griffiths stated that he thinks local journalism’s financial model has to be reassessed in an era of paywalls and subscriptions. He cites nonprofit organizations such as The Macon Melody and The Current on the Georgia coast as viable means of reviving local news.
The authors of the new paper hope that their results will assist increase the sustainability and viability of local media, even though they may not provide definitive answers.
We believe we made a truly important contribution here, and this will help us all better understand the situation and how to resolve it, Waldman said. It also provides a very meaningful image of the kind of journalistic horsepower in counties across America.
