MEDIA
Local news, long a vital civic bond, is in trouble. Can we save it?
The infrastructure of local news is crumbling and in some places nonexistent, with dire effects on democracy and civic life, experts say. A growing number of people in academia, politics, and the news industry say an urgent response is needed, with new ideas about what local news organizations should look like and how they can be supported. HKS faculty members, staffers, and alumni are tackling a problem that has no easy answers. “Newspapers were traditionally the common bond in the community, with shared information being the basis for people thinking somehow they’re on the same ship,” says HKS Professor Thomas Patterson. |