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The Big Idea Series/Democracy Under Attack

Journalism’s Market Failure Is a Crisis for Democracy

March 12, 2020

Local journalism is failing in the United States. Many of us learn in school that a free society requires a free press, but we rarely reflect on what it actually means to lose the fourth estate. Democracies need independent, fact-based journalism to provide a voice for a diverse range of people, to watchdog the powerful, and to keep members of a society informed. Study after study has found that without access to local news, people are less civically engaged and less likely to vote. The demise of local newspapers — which are still by far the main source of original reporting in their communities — is also linked to a rise in local corruption and an increase in polarization, as news consumers rely more on partisan-inflected national outlets for their information.

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