What Are the Democratic Requirements of Journalism?

A series of recent reports have raised an interesting set of questions for those of us who care about the civic impact of journalism in local communities. Together I think the research highlights new oportunties and possibilities for local news, but also some challenges.

Last week the Knight Foundation released a new study that found three-quarters of Millennials cite a lack of local news as a barrier to voting. The research came just days after a new Pew report that found most young people see Facebook as their primary source of political news and information. However, this issue isn’t unique to Millennials. In 2014 a Portland State University faculty member found that civic engagement in Seattle and Denver fell after newspapers in those cities closed.

Even for those who are informed, access to information may not translate into democratic action. Kate Krontiris, a social scientist who just released a new report with Google, describes the “Informed Bystander” as a widespread category of people in America. “Almost half of the United States adult population could be considered ‘Interested Bystanders’” she writes, “48.9% of people are paying attention to issues around them, but not actively voicing their opinions or taking action on those issues.”

Obviously, not all the ails of the democracy fall on the shoulders of journalists, but taken together this body of research does suggest interesting questions. Can we do more to engage young people around local issues and politics through the news? Are we delivering news in ways that people can act on, that give them clear avenues for engagement? Are people finding the important coverage we are doing or is it disappearing in the flood of content online? How might the idea of the Informed Bystander change the way we cover elections and issues?

If you are as interested in the opportunities and challenges this research suggests as I am, please get in touch and let’s think about it together. Reply to this post or drop me a line on Twitter.