Blog Post #11 EOTO: What I Learned

News Desert

Grace led a very interesting and engaging presentation on the concept of News Deserts. She explains that a news desert is an area that receives little to no information from local news sources. This caught my attention because how is it that citizens can be left in the dust, uneducated and uninformed?   

These communities are being left in the dark, with limited access to credible and comprehensive news. What happens when there is no access to information? The people are left misinformed and without that information about local politics, business, and events, there is no way for them to make their own opinions or have opportunities to engage. When there is no information provided, people are going to go looking for any news that they can find, which typically ends with them falling upon untrustworthy sources. Rumors and false information are the results of relying on untrustworthy sources. The quality of news sources is of utmost importance because it is very easy to get people to believe things, so it is necessary to make sure that the information is true.

I learned that this hold of information is greatly blamed on the decline of print media. Print journalism has been negatively affected by the digital age. People rely on social media, TV, websites, etc. Social media only gives that quick blurb of information. Many people are not interested in reading the entirety of a story or understanding what the news is really saying. Digital media spews out huge headlines with little to no substance to go along with it. The news industry has greatly shifted during this modern time. 

Grace also mentioned financial constraints, investment entities, and big corporations. All three of these come down to one major issue: large newspaper chains taking over smaller publications. Small local publications are losing readership and revenue because of the digital age. Most readers are switching to online media thus negatively affecting smaller newspaper companies. Moreover, many of these daily newspapers are owned by large newspaper companies which means that they have the right to restrict the type of stories the daily publications can write. This affects the overall quality of the story because the writer will not be as enthusiastic if it is a story they have no interest in. Reporting and writing about a story that one cares about and connects with, will be a more thought out and informative piece. These stories that the writers care about tend to get cut by the larger companies because big corporations don't see truthful insights as a necessity. 

News deserts can happen anywhere and they are becoming more prevalent today. It is a growing issue in low-income areas and minority neighborhoods in big cities. Our country is growing more and more misinformed each day and this is leading to madness. There is great importance in understanding the entirety of story and looking at both sides of an argument. Making sure that everyone has access to truthful and informative news is the first step to creating a more educated and informed population.  

Grace said, "No news is bad news."