The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the world and profoundly changed our lives. Although it was a global disaster, the pandemic’s impact was felt by most people at the local level as we navigated a strange new reality filled with new words like Zoom school, social distancing and N-95 masks.
Is it safe to go to the grocery store? How long are my children going to be home from school? Will my favorite restaurant reopen? Is there capacity at the local hospital if my Mom gets sick?
Local news organizations found themselves facing an immense task — one that was literally life-or-death, in some cases — as they tried to keep their communities informed in the midst of an unfolding catastrophe. But local news organizations had themselves already been devastated by years of falling revenue, shrinking budgets, layoffs and buyouts. Meanwhile, the tides of misinformation rise ever higher, fueled by social media and profound political polarization.
How did local news organizations manage this shifting landscape? What topics did they cover? How was that coverage framed? And how much truly local coverage did they produce? This thesis project sought to answer these questions for a set of local news organizations in North Carolina and make recommendations about how local news organizations can respond to future crises.
News Desert: a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level.
The Expanding News Desert