News reporting is among the least-trusted institutions in the U.S., right there with lawyers, elected officials, used car dealers and public health. And yet, the service is important.
"Local newspapers write about your roads. They write about the weather. They write about all the wildfires creeping in close to us. They celebrate the local high school team's state championship. I mean, they're just documenting history in real time," said Spokesman-Review executive editor Rob Curley.
"We know that local news is really important for providing critical information to communities, and that information is really important for citizens to be able to make informed decisions about their daily lives. And related to that is the importance of local news to not only civic life, but to a very robust and healthy democracy," said WSU Communication assistant professor Jennifer Henrichsen, one of the lead authors of a new study on local news in Washington.
"We often think of news as major national or international outlets, but the truth is that most of the fourth estate in this and most other countries is small local outlets that report on their communities. They are the majority and the lifeblood of journalism in this country," said Henrichsen's colleague, assistant professor Pawel Popiel.
Our next two shows are devoted to the state of local news in the Inland Northwest and talking with people who are reporting and editing it. Some believe local news is in trouble. Media companies are having a hard time making enough money to hire and sustain reporters and editors. Some are giving up on the notion on doing news.
"The idea that you would lose this is incredible. But what's happened is you have half the population saying, no, the media is bad. And then they actually see what a local newspaper does or a local radio station does, and they realize, wow, this isn't CNN. This isn't Fox. This is very different. And so we're competing against that national view. And it's because it's not like we've missed it with a few generations. We've screwed it up massively for a lot," said Spokesman-Review executive editor Rob Curley.
