Ghosting the News
Foothills Forum invites everyone to a virtual evening this Friday with Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post media columnist and author of the recently published book “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy.”
The locally exclusive Zoom event will take place Friday, Sept. 11, at 5:30 p.m., with discussion and live Q&A moderated by Rappahannock resident Andy Alexander, a longtime Foothills advisor and former Washington Post ombudsman.
In her review for the New York Times, Jennifer Szalai wrote, “‘Disinformation’ and ‘fake news’ bring to mind scheming operatives, Russian troll farms and noisy propaganda; stories about them are titillating enough to garner plenty of attention. But what Sullivan writes about is a ‘real-news problem’ — the shuttering of more than 2,000 American newspapers since 2004, and the creation of ‘news deserts,’ or entire counties with no local news outlets at all.”
Please RSVP to [email protected] to get a link to join the event.
More about “GHOSTING THE NEWS: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy”
Margaret Sullivan
Margaret Sullivan
Americans might think that one of the biggest crises we are facing is the much-discussed problem of “fake news”—there is too much information and misinformation. But in Ghosting the News, Margaret Sullivan, media columnist at The Washington Post and one of the most respected figures in journalism, is here to show us that there is a much more critical problem with American democracy: we are actually living in a world where there is too little information—where there is a critical shortage of real news. More than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. have shuttered in recent years, and others are a shadow of their former selves. Sullivan used to be the top editor at one of those, the Buffalo News, where she began as a summer intern and rose to become the paper’s first female editor. She has watched the disappearance of thousands of editorial jobs, and with it the lack of coverage of city halls, statehouses, school boards and other essential institutions. It is just our luck that the vanishing of accountability journalism is reaching a breaking point during the COVID-19 pandemic, just when citizens need local news more than ever.
Sullivan is sounding the alarm with GHOSTING THE NEWS: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy (Columbia Global Reports; July 14, 2020; $15.99), her urgent, deeply researched look at the underlying causes of the crisis and what might be done before it’s too late. Her goal: to shake Americans’ complacency about the state of local news and help them understand the severity of the problem.
Sullivan focuses on the many news deserts throughout America, which she defines as “counties with no newspaper or meaningful news outlet at all.” These include but are not limited to Youngstown, Ohio; East Lansing, Michigan; Pflugerville, Texas; East Palo Alto, California—all communities that used to have a thriving local press for years. She explains how the dearth of local news in communities is bad for democracy. “When local news fails, the foundations of democracy weaken,” she writes. “The public, which depends on accurate, factual information in order to make good decisions—suffer. The consequences may not always be obvious, but they are insidious.” In communities with no local newspapers, citizens are less politically engaged, retreating into tribal corners and voting along party lines. Residents of news deserts are unable to hold their public officials accountable, keep municipal borrowing costs low, or save local taxpayers money. She observes that this problem is not unique to America, but is a worldwide crisis in the making.
There are encouraging signs of hope. Sullivan fans across the country to talk to those who are doing something about the journalism crisis through promising startups and nonprofit, digital-first newsrooms like The Texas Tribune, VTDigger and the MinnPost. She reports on bold ideas such as federal subsidies for media as well as Report for America, a nonprofit that places young journalists in hollowed-out local newsrooms.
For Sullivan, who spent most of her career in local news, Ghosting the News is personal. It not only describes a large, global problem and its effects, but it talks about the human cost and the emotions of losing a loved and valued profession. There is no one better suited to tell this story and to galvanize Americans to action.
