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Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy

Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy

by Margaret Sullivan

Columbia Global Reports ·2020 ·105 pages
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Scholars' Citation Index

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About This Book

Ghosting the News tells the most troubling media story of our time: how democracy suffers when local news dies. From 2004 to 2015, 1,800 print newspaper outlets closed in the US. One in five news organizations in Canada has closed since 2008. One in three Brazilians lives in news deserts. The absence of accountability journalism has created an atmosphere in which indicted politicians were elected, school superintendents were mismanaging districts, and police chiefs were getting mysterious payouts. This is not the much-discussed fake-news problem--it's the separate problem of a critical shortage of real news. America's premier media critic, Margaret Sullivan, charts the contours of the damage, and surveys a range of new efforts to keep local news alive--from non-profit digital sites to an effort modeled on the Peace Corps. No nostalgic paean to the roar of rumbling presses, Ghosting the News instead sounds a loud alarm, alerting citizens to a growing crisis in local news that has already done serious damage.


Reviews

"Ghosting the News, as the bearer of very bad news about the news itself, adopts an aptly funereal feel."

Megan Garber· The Atlantic Read review ↗ Near the Top

"She's not the first to explore this crisis, but her book succeeds in its aim of delivering an urgent message in a concise way ..."

Susan Benkelman· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Call it a leap of irrational faith, but I think the prognosis is premature ..."

Sewell Chan· Los Angeles Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Instead, she trains her eyes on the 'news deserts' that now litter the landscape and voices concern about how corruption will consume communities that no longer have media watchdogs ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"[Sullivan] attempts to strike a hopeful note can sound unsatisfying because of how problematic all the solutions are."

Jennifer Szalai· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

"But perhaps I'm naive to think 'America's premier media critic,' as the book's back cover proclaims Ms."

Barton Swaim· The Wall Street Journal Read review ↗ Bottom of the Pile

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