How local journalism can upend the ‘fake news’ narrative


Local journalists are often the only journalists that most people will ever meet.

 

By Caroline S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, University of Oregon

Damian Radcliffe continues to engage in freelance creative and consulting work related to his expertise on media and technology matters. He is a member of the Online News Association and has received funding from the Agora Journalism Center and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism to research developments into business models, innovation and civic engagement in local media. 
“For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally,” Edelman, the global PR and marketing firm concluded in its annual worldwide study on trust in institutions like the media, business and government.These international findings are in line with recent data coming out of the U.S. A 2016 Gallup poll reported that just 32 percent of Americans trusted the mass media, while an Ipsos poll from summer 2018 found that nearly one-third of Americans agreed that the news media is the “enemy of the people.”How did it come to this?

First, it’s important to recognize that our national media, just like our politics, has become highly partisan.

Second, it’s necessary to acknowledge that existing media business models fuel this polarization. The drumbeat of an us-versus-them narrative has created what Tim Dixon, co-author of a new study titled “The Hidden Tribes of America,” calls a “cartoonish view of the other side.”

For the rest of the article, go to:

https://theconversation.com/how-local-journalism-can-upend-the-fake-news-narrative-104630?fbclid=IwAR0Rai-CYjBTl9IVAReQ720bm0ih81X6CQ2ZHZoUC5V-Op_3rUitB737FHY

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