Local Politics Need Quality News, Not Facebook
Americans love politics nowadays. Politics has become a religion of sorts, with cable news ratings through the roof whether it be CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC. Also, many other forms of political debate and commentary are growing extremely popular whether it be social media pages and influencers, news sites, and other forms of media. But often overlooked are local politics; whether it be Trump, Biden, the Clintons, some member of Congress, or a member of the federal government, people love to focus on the biggest figures across the country, despite the reality that local politics usually has the most effect on them. From schools to property taxes, local governments are often the governmental bodies that influence our lives the most.
Many voices in the media believe our local newspapers have diminished and social media has failed to fill the void. Now it has become much easier for people to stay informed on local matters with social media’s ease of access, but this huge gain is coming at a huge cost.
Despite being drastically more informed than ever before, social media sites are leaving local governments weak, divided, and even illogical. More information is not a bad thing, but sometimes great things come at a cost. That Big Mac may sure taste great, but it isn’t great for one’s health overall and today’s influx and unregulated flow of information provided by social media is much like that Big Mac, where the ease of access and how quickly information can be spread on social media are great and may look good at first glance but once you finish consuming it, hatred and divisiveness only grow more and more potent, while misinformation also thrives, affecting a municipality’s health.
Social media is providing us with so much more knowledge about our governments, on the local, state, and national levels, but they also feed our hatred for each other. Division is being sewn by social media through highly opinionated pages and commentators, such as Steven Crowder, Candace Owens, the Gravel Institute, and others often seek to draw borders between Republicans and Democrats using events such as the 2016 or 2020 elections to increase the divisiveness in our culture. No level of information can justify leaving us weak and useless because at the end of the day being fragile does not fix any of our problems.
Take South Kingstown, RI, for example. There is a page called Our Town on Facebook that will discuss all things concerning South Kingstown. Now most of this page is just people asking questions about a good landscaper, the new Chinese restaurant, and so on and so forth. But often these discussions will turn political and negative.
Whether it be repairing a road, a new building being built by the town or university nearby, or budgeting, debate often erupts, and hundreds upon hundreds of comments ensue, often spiraling in circles. These comments often also become mean and rude to others.
A few years ago a busy road that has a McDonald’s, Burger King, the local mall, and other popular stores and restaurants was redone. The road was originally purely pavement and sidewalk, but after it was redone, grass and plants were planted with new pavement and a revamped sidewalk.
Someone on the Our Town page decided to post about it, garnering hundreds of comments, plenty of them negative. Many did not understand all of the plants, not seeing their purpose, and also not liking the new aesthetic, often suggesting that they looked like a bunch of weeds.
A botanist at the University of Rhode Island chimed in and explained how the plants were specifically chosen for environmental reasons including better drainage and dealing with runoff, plus they could even weather the road salt in the winter that would eventually end up in the areas where they were planted.
Their explanation was concise and quite good, so it would be easy to surmise that people started to get the point, right? Nope.
People continued to criticize the plants, ignoring the well-written explanation from an expert, who is from the area, and instead, these critics continued to waste time and energy spewing negativity. In fact, a few months later, a woman posted that she had snapped one day and could not take the sight of the plants anymore and started to weed the areas with the plants that were carefully planted to resolve multiple issues.
This is the harsh reality of local politics nowadays, unfortunately. Instead of productive, informative, and peaceful communities built on collaboration and cooperation, communities and local governments are often bogged down by negativity and unwarranted criticism.
But not everyone wants to sit back and let local politics deteriorate to petty arguing. One national group called Braver Angels is seeking to fix these problems. Braver Angels does not seek to fix the country’s widening political divide necessarily through political compromise, but instead through open-minded conversation and dialogue.
Through their various workshops, making both conservatives and progressives confront each other based on their opposing views and realize shared similarities. But these workshops often only focus on more national issues, which remain the most divisive for most Americans, but ignore pressing local matters.
Newspapers used to be where Americans could call out for change, speak truth to power, and hold politicians and public officials accountable. But newspapers, especially local ones, have been on the decline for years.
According to an article from Northwestern University, the United States has lost more than one-fourth of its newspapers since 2005 and is on pace to lose one-third of them by 2025. With these deaths of local news sources, ‘news deserts’ are growing leaving 70 million Americans, or 20% of the country, either living in an area with no local news organizations or one at risk, with only one local news source and limited access to important news and information to help people’s everyday lives and also democracy according to the same article and study from Northwestern University.
But all hope is not lost. Some nonprofit digital local news startups have launched or are planning to launch in areas such as Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and Houston, while other sources are transitioning from print to digital.
This transformation of local news is ultra important to the future of the country. The stats are quite simple when it comes to the decline of local news. These so-called ‘news deserts’ have an average poverty rate of 16 percent. The national average is 11 percent, according to a report from Axios, that cites the Northwestern article. Also, one study suggested that government costs increase when local papers collapse, this coming from the same Axios piece.
The death of the local paper cannot continue. If Americans want to promote democracy and enjoy prosperous lives, then we must find a solution to this problem. It may not be solved by paper, but instead through a screen, which can be used for good things if utilized properly.
A free press is essential to American democracy. We must bring new life to the American newspaper through a digital means of communication, helping continue to call out government overreach and advocate for what the people want. Along with more open-minded discussions from groups such as Better Angels, we can resolve our division politically. But we must also be careful not to fall into the pitfall of the mob mentality. The internet is an amazing thing, allowing for easy communication among people, but it can quickly spiral out of control. Avoiding the negativity and unproductive arguments of Our Town is key to this new digital town square.
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost,” Thomas Jefferson once said. This remains true to this day, and local news must undergo a facelift to maintain the freedom of the press and its effectiveness, or else, without it our liberty will be lost.
