Americans’ trust in local news remains much higher than in national news, according to a recent poll by Gallup and the Knight Foundation. But the poll also reveals several areas of concern, especially for a news industry needing public support to survive.
Overall the poll found 44 percent of Americans trust local news “a great deal” or “quite a lot,” holding steady since a 2019 poll that found 45 percent trusted local news.
National news fared worse, falling from 31 percent to 27 percent last year, and widening the gap between trust in local versus national outlets.
“Compared with other sources of local information, Americans also say local news does the best job of keeping them informed, holding leaders accountable and amplifying stories in their communities versus social media, community-based apps and word-of-mouth,” the Knight Foundation said in its release.
This is important for business reasons, as the struggling industry turns to digital subscriptions to make up for ad revenue that it lost to tech giants. Still, it remains a challenge to convince people to pay for local news when they can get drips and drabs for free online and from broadcasters.
Such research is helpful to discussions about “the media.”
“When people talk about trust, people ‘don’t trust the media,’ that’s an oversimplification of what’s really two very different types of media, the national and local,” Jim Brady, Knight’s vice president for journalism, told me.
For the industry, it validates the importance of work that can be thankless and low-paying. It also highlights areas where improvement is needed to preserve trust. Perhaps a silver lining is that this shows the value of local news: People trust and appreciate the service it provides despite imperfections.
Local outlets’ dire business situation compounds the problem. Mistakes increase when there are fewer editors and cutbacks in the editing process.
With fewer reporters, outlets fill space and populate websites with wire stories. National political stories generate some clicks, but that may prove to be a sugar high, jeopardizing local outlets’ higher trust and unique franchise.
“This is also a problem that needs to be addressed because it does have potentially long-term consequences to the credibility and health of a local news outlet,” said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean of Northwestern University’s Medill journalism school.
One warning sign is polarization found in the Gallup/Knight poll, with partisans far apart on their trust in news.
Democrats’ trust in local news grew, with 62 percent saying they trust local news. The share of Republicans trusting local news fell to 29 percent, from 34 percent in 2019.
You’ve got to wonder how they’re getting informed and what news outlets can do to be trusted by more Americans.
A start, at least, is having more information about strengths, weaknesses and which “media” people are actually talking about.
Brier Dudley is editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press Initiative. Reach him at bdudley@seattletimes.com
