What percent of American counties do not have a local newspaper?

Starters

Mar 31

Critical Analysis

Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:

A “news desert” is a community where residents have significantly diminished access to important local news and information that feeds grassroots democracy. According to the data from the visual above, how many counties to not have a local newspaper?
According to the data from the visual above, how many counties only have one local newspaper?
News deserts are communities lacking a news source that provides meaningful and trustworthy local reporting on issues such as health, government and the environment. It’s a vacuum that leaves residents ignorant of what’s going on in their world, incapable of fully participating as informed citizens. What’s their local government up to? Who deserves their vote? How are their tax dollars being spent? All are questions that go unanswered in a news desert. Based on the visual above, identify the geographical region of the country that has the most news deserts.
In the past 17 years, more than one-fourth of the country’s newspapers (see visual below*), and one half of all local journalists disappeared. In 1993, there were fewer than 200 websites available on the World Wide Web. Fast forward to 2022, and that figure has grown to 2 billion. Describe some of the main forces responsible for this loss of local reporting?
Historically, strong local newspapers have created a sense of community and nurtured grassroots democracies. Through their journalism, newspapers helped set the agenda for debate of important local issues. But seventy million Americans now live in areas without enough local news to sustain grass-roots democracy, the research shows. As local news disappears, bad things happen: Voter participation declines. Corruption, in business and government, finds more fertile ground. And false information spreads wildly. Make a claim about the most serious consequence of the proliferation of news deserts.
Every week, two more newspapers close — and ‘news deserts’ grow larger. In poorer, less-wired parts of the U.S., it’s harder to find credible news about your local community. How does the spread of news deserts impact democracy?
According to the interactive map below* my county has five newspapers. How do you think having a large number of media outlets impacts local political leadership?
Based on the visual above, how many news desert counties are in your state?
According to Penelope Muse Abernathy, the nation’s foremost expert on “news deserts” “We already live in a polarized country, and part of that polarization stems from our digital divide and our local-news divide. We have to think about how we reach people who aren’t digitally connected, and how we can support efforts that get beyond the city.” Describe one solution to fight American news desertification.
A recent Politico special report titled, Trump thrives in areas that lack traditional news outlets, found that news deserts were particularly fertile ground for support of Donald Trump. Among other insights, It found that:
• Trump’s share of the vote tended to drop in accordance with the amount of homes with news subscriptions: For every 10 percent of households in a county that subscribed to a news outlet, Trump’s vote share dropped by an average of 0.5 percentage points.
• Trump did better than Romney in areas with fewer households subscribing to news outlets but worse in areas with higher subscription rates: In counties where Trump’s vote margin was greater than Romney’s in 2012, the average subscription rate was only about two-thirds the size of that in counties where Trump did worse than Romney.
• Trump struggled against Clinton in places with more news subscribers: Counties in the top 10 percent of subscription rates were twice as likely to go for Clinton as those in the lowest 10 percent. Clinton was also more than 3.7 times as likely to beat former President Barack Obama’s 2012 performance in counties in the top 10 percent compared to those in the lowest 10 percent — the driest of the so-called news deserts.
Make a claim in your own words about the connection between news deserts and Trump support.