S1: It's time for Midday Edition on Kpbs. Today , we are talking about the consequence of local newsrooms shrinking and what that means for our democracy. I'm Jade Hindman. Here's the conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. UCSD has a familiar voice on campus to help train the next generation of journalists arming them with the historical context to tell the stories of today.
S2: Now , with my presence on campus hosting the show from the Department of Communication , UCSD also has a way to model the production of actual journalism.
S1: Plus , how political corruption thrives when local newsrooms shrink and the $500 million investment to keep newsrooms open and journalists working. That's ahead on Midday Edition. Local newsrooms are faced with budget cuts and it's causing a crisis of news and information. We want to talk about the impact journalism has locally and around the world , its relationship with democracy , and what our path forward might be. Journalist Marco Werman , host of the award winning program The World by Public Radio Exchange , has been reporting on international affairs for nearly three decades , since July of last year. He's brought that expertise to UC San Diego as their first ever journalist in residence , and he joins me now. Marco , welcome to Midday Edition.
S2: Thanks very much , Jade. It's great to be here.
S1: So glad to have you here. It really is an honor. So we're talking about the state of journalism locally and around the world and its impact on democracy. But first , I'm curious about your own journey in journalism.
S2: I don't know how many kids are like that , but it certainly was my case. I guess you could say that. I'll blame that on my parents. When we moved from New York City when I was six to North Carolina , and although Chapel Hill was a university town , it was definitely in you know , it was the South and it was what the South was in the 1960s. In that environment , I was kind of an oddball kid. My parents were kind of oddballs coming from New York City. A lot of people had never met a , you know , a Jewish kid before. It was kind of crazy. And as I grew up and learned more about my own parents stories , my head just began filling up with questions. So my mom , she's she's Dutch , born in Indonesia. Her parents were kind of Dutch elites. Her grandfather was a colonial governor of Aceh in Indonesia. And that meant when World War II broke out , my mom and her parents spent three years in a Japanese prison camp. My dad , he returned from the war with the goal of becoming a doctor and found that Jewish students hoping to pursue higher ed on the GI Bill were subject to quotas so he couldn't get in where he wanted. So he studied medicine at a public university in Switzerland. Our house , not surprisingly , also is filled with books that kind of took on all this history. And it was a godfather of mine , Ernest Pindell , who made documentaries at the time for ABC News , who made me realize when I think I was ten that telling stories about what happens in the world being a journalist is actually a career. And that's kind of when I decided that , wow , I can go up to somebody , anybody on the street or knock on somebody's door or call somebody up and explain to them that I'm a journalist and I have questions and they're obviously not obliged to answer. But you as a journalist get an opportunity to learn a lot about the world just by meeting people. So that seemed to me like an irresistible thing to do. And I've been doing it one way or another ever since I got my first job as a copy boy at the News Observer in Raleigh at the age of 16 and kind of been doing it ever since.
S1: Yeah , I feel the same way. The ability to walk up to anyone and ask questions and to get to learn new things is one of the best parts of the job. You mentioned that that there were you grew up with a lot of books and books that explained the history of what happened.
S2: I mean , I think the best journalism tries to explain kind of how we got to where we are today. We spend so much time as journalists covering what's happening right this second and what we expect to happen next. I think getting the historical context in order somewhere in in the explanation is not just important , but it's necessary to understanding where we are today. I was just speaking with somebody about our coverage of the 50th anniversary of the coup in Chile , which happened a couple of weeks ago. And understanding what happened then and linking it to the current day is just so important because what we're looking at right now is a survey that's been conducted in Chile , and it finds that even through the struggles to get back on track after that oppressive coup under Augusto Pinochet in 1973 , there is you know , Chile has come into its own kind of like democratic kind of reality , very encouraging. And at the same time , a survey suggests that young and old people in Chile are kind of nostalgic for the days of Pinochet. So to understand what that's all about is directly impacts our understanding of the present.
S1: And so you're the first journalist in residence at UCSD. Can you talk more about your role in what that. Work entails ? Sure.
S2: I mean , it's interesting , the world our program has actually established kind of a connection on both coasts with universities , Northeastern University in Boston and UCSD. The immediate benefit for both the show and these institutions is offering a paid internship each semester to a successful candidate in each on each campus who is actually really stitched in to the daily to the production of a daily international news program. So that's , you know , first and foremost , that's just invaluable real life experience in an area , public radio news that even universities with journalism programs frequently don't offer because they just don't have a program that teaches radio or audio journalism. And there's often print and and television. But radio and audio journalism has kind of thankfully for podcasts , you know , it's become kind of more of a focus in journalism departments. But it's not it's not obvious , as one might think. And now with my presence on campus hosting the show from the Department of Communication , UCSD also has a way to model the production of actual journalism. You know , right now , hosting this daily news show does not actually allow me the capacity and time yet to teach an actual class or seminar. But my hope is that I'm going to be able to shift my time in such a way that I can offer myself in a teaching role soon. So in the meantime , I've lectured in several classes , including Amanda Peters podcasting seminar , and I'm just continually impressed by the caliber of students and how they think about the media in a way that really suggests kind of a new flexibility and skill and mastering all kinds of technology and different ways of telling a story. I mean , for example , it's just been eye opening to consider how a platform like TikTok , thanks to students , which , you know , TikTok has seen as a way to show off dance moves , how can we use TikTok to inform a younger demographic about what's happening around the globe ? Kind of taking it from the goofy to the to the relevant. And I just feel like this current cohort of young journalists has the ability to show us older types , you know , kind of a way of doing that.
S1:
S2: I mean , there was I just came from the public Radio Program Directors Conference where there was a session specifically on the kind of higher education pipeline in into public radio and kind of vice versa , how radio stations , especially ones that are licensed to a university like Vermont Public Radio or Sdsu and Kpbs , the connection between students is current cohort of of students and young journalists , how they can play a role. And it's really important. It's a it's a crucial lifeline. And it's not just because they're coming up and they will be the next kind of professionals in this business , But also they're just plugged young journalists are plugged into the technology , but also it's a much more international group of students with and it's not because they necessarily come from other places around the world , but because they are dialed in to what's happening around the globe just by virtue of the fact that , you know , digital natives are connected through the net and they're picking up a lot of stuff that , you know , ten , 20 , 30 years ago , you would just have to kind of scrape away and dig to find information about a place like Burkina Faso or , you know , what's happening in Bogota , Colombia , right now. So I feel there's kind of a fluency in not language fluency , but kind of a fluency across the board and how to kind of express yourself via the platforms and via the technology and via this kind of ability to kind of understand the globe.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. I'm speaking with Marco Werman , host of The World and a journalist in residence at UCSD. And Marco , you're also helping to develop the democracy lab at UCSD. Tell us more about that. Right.
S2: Right. So the Democracy Lab is a really interesting undertaking at UCSD. It's described by the Department of Communication where , you know , the project sits as a collective of scholars , community organizers , activists and educators , all working toward re-envisioning participatory democracy. I should. Would say that the democracy lab was created just before the pandemic. So like so many things that were impacted by Covid , it kind of got the wind knocked out of it. But there's kind of active motion and energy , again , to make it a really dynamic operation. So it's got kind of two wings , if you will , that are going to make it fly research. And since UCSD is a research university , the Democracy Lab is kind of a repository of sorts for all manner of inquisitiveness and understanding of democracy here in the US and around the world. How is it working or not working and where what's at stake if it's not working , who pays a price ? And then the second wing , which I'm really kind of grabbing on to , is through practice , the practical application of asking those questions. And for me , this is really one of the attractive things about UCSD and the Democracy Lab. It built a state of the art podcasting studio , which is intended to be a place to amplify voices and ideas that are not getting heard precisely with this eye towards shaking up mainstream and corporate media patterns in order to , as the Democracy Lab itself states , better understand the ways such practices foster or frustrate public participation in a media saturated , infotainment driven social environment. So in a way , I'm almost seeing it as a way to keep our program the world honest within this environment , also using the lab to keep ourselves in check. So you were talking a moment ago , Jade , about , you know , kind of the evisceration of news media around the country. And it really kind of feels like this is a way to get at that. You know , it's just a topic that's really come into sharp relief in recent days. You know , the corporatization of the media as we see Rupert Murdoch stepping down from the head of News Corp , which owns Fox and Wall Street Journal and The New York Post , 80 million Americans currently live in what's known as a news desert. So I think the Democracy lab is trying to kind of address that. Right.
S1: Right. Right.
S2: I mean , what was really interesting about a report that came out just last year from the Middle School of Journalism is that there is a profound knock on effect between pulling back on news coverage and how we actually live in our towns and cities. So according to Modell's School of Journalism , this survey last year , this study last year , the United States is currently losing two newspapers a week. And what they found is that at the same time , municipal borrowing costs increase after a newspaper ceases publication. Academics also pointed out that fewer politicians run for smaller local government positions like mayor because there's less local newspaper coverage of those races. So the bottom line there is that the watchdogs that have kept municipal governments accountable and productive for more than a century are disappearing. And there was this one quote that I thought was , you know , pretty , pretty damning. While the economic decline in many communities was occurring prior to the rise of news deserts , the loss of of local news organizations will leave local residents without the critical information to begin to address those problems. At a minimum , the loss of local news worsens the political , cultural and economic divisions in this country. So it becomes this vicious circle with community vitality and investment shrinking , fewer people interested. Not surprisingly , not surprisingly , in running for office and working in a system that shows little promise of being able to get things done. Local residents become more apathetic and don't even know what to criticize anymore except quote unquote. And I'm finger quotes in the air here. Criticize the politicians. And when you don't understand what's going on , it's much easier to find a scapegoat and just point irrationally at the other side and say it's their fault. So yeah , so that's that's what it all looks like. And that's why that's just one example of why it's warring.
S1: I mean , okay , so you've got news deserts , you have misinformation and disinformation easily available on social media platforms. The other part of this , too , is , is that there is a real mistrust in media , in legitimate news organizations.
S2: I think about , you know , explaining really as a journalist how you go about , you know , collecting sources , why you turn to sources. You do you know why they're credible. And , you know , it becomes harder and harder to do , especially in this age of artificial intelligence , where , you know , the ability to manipulate voices , create deep fakes , exponentially spreading of messages that may be false and further eroding of the of the trust that's going to become even more challenging. So to find kind of centers of of trust and accuracy and to know who are the sources you can rely on and who you can't , and to develop a whole new cohort of young journalists who understand that and just what's at stake if we don't really shore up muscle in that area.
S1: I've been speaking with Marco Werman , host of The World and a journalist in residence at UCSD. Marco , thank you so much for joining us.
S2: It's been an absolute pleasure , Jay. Thank you.
S1: Coming up , the conversation continues with a look at how political corruption thrives when local newsrooms shrink.
S3: I think that's sort of at the guts of why journalism matters is how we can keep accounts of the powerful.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. Welcome back. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman all across the country and right here in San Diego , newspapers are being gutted and staff are being laid off. As newsrooms grapple with these cuts , we want to know what effect could this have on our local politics , especially if there are fewer journalists to hold the powerful accountable. I'm joined now by Dr. Nikki Usher , a professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego. They published a study last July called How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark , which finds the links between local journalism , non profit journalism and political corruption ? Professor Usher , thanks for joining us.
S3: Thanks so much for having me.
S1:
S3: But watchdog journalism can be a much broader understanding of just regular checking in on the people who have power in our lives , from small businesses to to local governments to schools. So just kind of being present to provide a regular accounting for everybody else who doesn't have the time to do it. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So in this climate where newsrooms are shrinking , I guess I have a twofold question here.
S3: I think that in a city like San Diego , the home of the anchorman legend , local television news is pretty robust and continues to do pretty well and is actually , strangely , to me , given some of the crime coverage that can reinforce stereotypes actually tends to be the most trusted out of all types of news , which I find interesting and important to keep in mind. But when it comes to newspaper journalism in particular , that commercial model has really gone kaput for lots of reasons , but mostly for the decline of the advertising model in a digital era. Facebook and Google are just simply better at targeting ads than a giant general interest newspaper covering all of San Diego.
S1: And there's consequences for that failure of a business model , political corruption being one of them.
S3: And some of the most powerful people are politicians and public officials who have a lot of access to money behind closed doors. And if we don't have journalists , we don't really have a good sense of nobody's really keeping after them. We might just have to get lucky and hope that a whistleblower goes public or something like that. And so journalists provide a really important , critical check on understanding these mechanics. One of the things we wanted to look at , and this is a little bit of a tricky logical jump. So here's the difficulty. We can't measure. The corruption we don't know is happening. So we can't actually see if corruption goes up , if there's nobody there to note that corruption. So instead , as part of our study , we actually were interested in seeing if prosecutions for public corruption from the Justice Department actually went down , because in our model of this , the fewer prosecutions for public corruption , probably it's likely that there's fewer journalists digging up stuff , right ? And so in a robust democracy , we actually have checks on people in power. So that's what we were actually it's kind of an interesting logical kind of puzzle and quandary of how do you actually measure corruption. But what we found is that especially local news , nonprofits play a really important role in stabilizing some of these consequences for public accountability and mitigating the harms of not being able to check political corruption through journalistic watchdogs.
S1: And can you talk more about nonprofit news organizations , the role that they play in uncovering political corruption ? And how their business model works.
S3: Yeah , I think that most people I think we should remind everybody that Kpbs is also a nonprofit news organization and a very important one. And the National Public Radio model has been one of the oldest proven tests that philanthropically based journalism can be a critical mission for for for journalism and for serving the public. But there's been kind of this wellspring of nonprofit digital first news startups. And actually , San Diego is home to one of the oldest , the voice of San Diego , which was founded in 2005in the wake of the first round of very devastating cuts at the San Diego Union-Tribune. And so the big difference is that instead of having to return a profit to shareholders or please a private owner , that they're making money every year off of their news investment , there's no requirement that further profit be made other than the operating costs of the news organization. And this whole nonprofit status enables everyone from foundations to individual donors to help support local journalism. So in many ways , to me , there's a much more kind of like locally sourced community behind the journalism because it's really being crowdfunded in many ways. So that's really the difference. It's not about making money off of people's eyeballs. It's about kind of bringing people together to help fund news that is vitally important for their communities.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hyndman. I'm speaking with Nikki Usher , a professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego , about the relationship between local news and political corruption. And Dr. Asher , I want to talk more about political corruption.
S3: And I think probably the supervisors race. I don't know if that constitutes corruption , but let's just say bad behavior among public officials in ways that undermine their responsibility primarily to the public. And I think that we tend to hear about what happens after the result of an investigation or after a complaint comes forward. So it can be really reactive. And so I think part of the problem is that we don't have as many journalists. And you can hear people in city government complaining about this , that we just simply don't have as many journalists covering vital aspects of how our city works. And it's hard to just get even messages that these city institutions want to get out to the public , much less keep an eye on wrongdoing.
S1:
S3: And statistically , it is true , one of the most corrupt states in the country and had a governor go to jail within recent memory. And the city of Chicago , I think , is a good example of a city where a corruption is endemic. I think 19 aldermen have been brought up for public corruption charges over the past 3 to 5 years. And to me , I think the red flags are really a machinery of politics where there's kind of like a like kind of like you hear the words the Democratic machine , where there's kind of this overarching agenda that isn't checked because there aren't any other choices. And there's a way of doing politics in that city that are hard to resist. And I think that for better or worse , Chicago is a really good example of that. On the other hand , Chicago is really exciting because it's one of the most interesting places for profit journalism. So I don't really know how to square all of this , But what concerns me is that when I don't see regular coverage of city institutions and powerful businesses in the community , that members of the public remain uninformed about the basic ongoings , the very basic day to day details that they would otherwise have in a more robust local media ecosystem.
S1:
S3: One of the things the only ways that we can really sanction politics , politicians for behaving badly or for failing to represent. The public is through the ballot box. Journalism doesn't have an enforcement mechanism. It can only shine light. It's up to the rest of us to do our jobs and vote and take political action. And so we don't have journalists doing that critical job of shedding light. There's no capacity. How are voters supposed to do anything to to create a check ? And so I think that's a real issue. And as we saw in the last election cycle in California , increasingly candidates are going directly to the public. Advertising spending is way up and going in all sorts of different directions back to like mailers. And so people are getting most of their information about local politics through advertising , and they're not getting the truth if it comes through advertising. So I think it's something we really need to be aware of.
S1: And we're grappling with so many threats to democracy.
S3: There are all these unincorporated cities and places. There are dozens of different agencies. There's a huge sort of police infrastructure , and there are a lot of community advisory boards that give the public a sense they have a voice. But ultimately , and I think you see this with the the police surveillance and the community oversight group , that ultimately those community advisory boards don't have the ability to actually enforce what their suggestions are. And so what I've noticed about San Diego is that a lot of political activity actually happens in the public forum. So , for instance , the Ocean Beach pier that's going to be remodeled and re-envisioned , that process is really kind of grassroots in the sense that community comment is being sought. And I think part of that is actually because there aren't journalists doing that kind of professional mediation on a regular basis between audiences and residents and political officials and businesses. So I think San Diego is got a really difficult challenge in terms of the structure of governance here. But also I think that the public has responded in many ways by being far more active in opportunities for public comment than I think actually. And I think this is a great potential study for me to do at some point that I actually think that the commitment to writing to the mayor and writing in public notice is much , much more significant here than in other places I've seen.
S1: And let's say that that local newsrooms were well funded.
S4:
S3: Covering the intricacies of political malfeasance , especially abuse of public funds , is incredibly difficult and requires an extremely specialized set of skills. So if ordinary community members can play a role in publicizing what's happening at the local schools , the marquee role that journalists have is doing this deep digging and taking the time to be inside powerful institutions that you can only get inside through a press pass. And so I think going back to your sort of original question about the ability to cover corruption , I think it also depends what you mean by corruption. Is corruption lobbyists holding state governments capture or is corruption really the abuse of public funds or the abuse of public office , like sexually harassing your staff , for example ? And I think that it really depends on having truly skilled journalists to do that very difficult work. And unfortunately , in commercial media , those positions are getting harder and harder to see. However , that's where these nonprofit news outlets , especially investigative ones , really can fill in the slack.
S1: I've been speaking with Dr. Nikki Usher , a professor of communication studies at University of San Diego. And Dr. Usher , thank you so much for your insight and for joining us today.
S3: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
S1: Coming up , we'll tell you about the multimillion dollar investment into local newsrooms and how it may be our path forward.
S5: The idea of announcing it at this point was to try to bring in even more funders to make the statement that , look , this is important. Funding local news should be a top priority for donations , charitable contributions.
S1: You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. We've been talking about the decline in local news and its effect on democracy. Budget deficits pose the greatest risk to the local news business model. A coalition of funders is hoping to change that through a new journalism initiative called Press Forward , led by the MacArthur Foundation. The goal is to reshape the local news landscape so journalists can continue to serve and inform communities. I'm joined now by Brian Ewell. He is the director of journalism and communications at the Rising Simons Foundation , one of the California based partners of Press Ford. Brian , welcome to Midday Edition.
S5: Hi , Thanks for having me.
S1: So glad to have you here. So can you tell us more about what the press forward initiative is and how your organization got involved ? Absolutely.
S5: So local news is critical. It's critical to our communities for being informed about what's going on. And it's critical for holding the powerful accountable. But 20% of Americans are living in news deserts with little to no coverage of local events. So press forward is this initiative where you had more than 20 foundations and big donors from across the country come together and say , local news is important. We need to do something to strengthen local news for stronger communities. And so it was this group that is saying we're going to put forward more than $500 million to revise revitalized local news over the next five years.
S1: Like you mentioned , there's more than $500 million going into this.
S5: Some of it is still to be figured out because the idea of announcing it at this point was to try to bring in even more funders to make the statement that , look , this is important , funding local news should be a top priority for donations , charitable contributions. But one of the things that was said early on is four big areas. So there's strengthening local newsrooms that have the trust of local communities. So the the news organization that exists that needs help , that needs resources , let's let's make bold investments in these organizations to support and grow them. That's area number one. Area number two is thinking about the support they are needed in terms of an infrastructure. So , you know , are there shared services and tools from legal support to membership programs , something that can kind of enable the environment for those organizations to thrive ? Number three is paying a close attention to the long standing inequities in journalism coverage and practice , making sure information is is out there for the underserved communities and marginalized populations and economically challenged areas. And then number four is public policy , you know , policies that can really expand access to local news and civic information. And this idea of , again , for the creating the environment that that these organizations can thrive. So those four general areas is where there will be funding , but the funding guidelines will be developed in 2024. So the funders are just coming together now. They're announcing this commitment and , you know , they encourage people to go on the the website , press forward news and and check it out and learn more and sign up. But stay tuned for kind of more specific guidelines on how the money is going to be distributed.
S1: That's great. And in what ways will this initiative support staff who come from marginalized backgrounds and help close those longstanding inequities in the newsroom ? Yeah.
S5: So I think I mean , it's one of the four big priorities and I think the exact how is to be determined. But I think the the biggest point is bringing that on that same level of all these other issues. And , you know , that's something that's deeply important to me and the foundation where I work , which is that in order to , you know , journalism is critical to a healthy and multicultural democracy. And if you're not paying attention to that absence of content and voices from marginalized , underrepresented populations and communities , you are not accurately reflecting this country. You are not keeping all citizens informed in the way they need to be informed to make decisions. And that's just a giant blind spot. And journalism has has a history of that blind spot. So if we're going to make a big investment in journalism , let's make sure to pay particular attention to that and make sure you're creating a model that speaks to the future of this country.
S1: And your foundation focused a lot on national news before this initiative. Why is it important to sort of recenter local news and make sure. They're financially supported. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. So think the importance of national journalism is absolutely still front and center , but there hasn't been enough dollars going towards these local communities. And the great thing is Americans are an incredibly generous bunch and communities look out for their schools and their arts and culture institutes and their religious institutions. And we're saying news and information and journalism is just as important to your community and should be on that list of things that communities think about. So really , it's not only the importance of local news , but the solution is really there in that our communities can embrace this and help take care of local news. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S5: Our journalism portfolio is particularly focused on underrepresented and marginalized populations and content and voice. And probably our biggest piece of that is something called the American Mosaic Journalism Prize. This is two $100,000 unrestricted prizes to freelance journalists who are working on longform narrative or deep reporting on stories about underrepresented or misrepresented groups in the present American landscape. And the prize really recognizes this great work that freelance journalists have done. And through the help of leaders in journalism who serve as judges and nominators kind of comes out of the blue and goes to these journalists and say , hey , you're doing an amazing job. This is so important to us. Here is $100,000 completely unrestricted. You didn't apply for this. Here's this prize. Keep doing what you're doing. People believe in you. And hopefully the attention from this award brings more people to to read. Listen. Watch your stuff.
S1: That is excellent. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman here with Brian Uhl , director of journalism and communications at the Rising Simons Foundation. And we're talking about the press forward initiative.
S5: I well , so really early in my career , I was a sports reporter. I did some sports coverage at Colorado Springs Gazette , then I did some feature writing at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. So I spent lots of time and lots of different local communities. Then The Patriot Ledger and Quincy , Mass. And went on to do book writing and longer form writing. Wow.
S1: Wow. So , so then as a reporter for local papers , did you see anything in your community that informs your work now ? Yeah.
S5: You know , I think the the biggest thing that struck me then and still stays with me today is actually something that cuts across lots of different issue areas. And that is the potential and power of restless and relentless leadership , you know , people who are just driven to do right , to put the community first , to think about being accountable to the communities. It's one of the reasons that I was talking earlier about nonprofit newsrooms as a potential model. This is this is a model where the money gets reinvested back into the journalism organization. And the ones that stand out are these incredible leaders. And so I often tell people , look for the leaders who are working every day to hold the powerful accountable , who are passionate and creative at telling the untold story and who see themselves accountable to the communities. And so that was that was true then. That was true now. And it's true in issues beyond journalism. It's just the restless and relentless leaders who will who will get you to the Promised Land. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I mean , and you've written before about urging everyday people to donate to non profit news.
S5: News and information is important to any issue you care about you. You need an informed population. It gives you what you need to make decisions. It holds the powerful accountable. We've heard countless cases of a school board , a city council , a courtroom behaving differently. If a reporter , if a local news reporter is sitting there watching , then if there is no journalist holding , holding the powerful accountable. And so just like we contribute to other ways to keep our community healthy , news is an essential. Show part. And so a lot of our communities are are very lucky that they have strong news organizations and a lot aren't. And if you don't contributing to that new nonprofit news organization to to help them grow , help them do this kind of reporting , this kind of coverage is going to benefit you in countless ways if you care about that community.
S1: You know , when it comes to like big media organizations , there is this issue of distrust in those organizations. But when it comes to local newsrooms , Americans tend to trust them more.
S5: And I think well , first of all , just asking that question to me is a sign of a prioritization that that is important. Right. And so then that alone is fantastic. The next step then is what are you going to do about it ? And I think the examples I've heard that are great are going and talking to the community and being like , What do you need from your news organization ? News and journalism is a public good. It's a public service , and we shouldn't be competing for eyeballs to talk about things that bring about anger and fear because conflict draws eyeballs or we shouldn't be doing talking about a political race because people like a horse race and it's years away. We should be asking , what you in the community , what do you need ? What kind of information do you need to make the decisions you want ? What kind of service do you need from your public news , your nonprofit news ? And then molding the type of coverage , the type of information you share , the goals of the organization with that information in mind. And that is a completely different model than what we see in a lot of for profit news and a lot of national news. It's it really just goes back to being accountable to the community and asking the community what it needs and continuing that conversation. That's not a one time conversation because obviously communities are vibrant , they change , different things happen , making sure there is that two way conversation and that channel continuing. I just think that's critical.
S1: Great advice. I've been speaking with Brian Uhl , director of journalism and communications at the Housing Simons Foundation. Brian , it was great talking with you.
S5: Oh , it was terrific. Thank you. And thank you for all the work you are doing there in San Diego and and we're all appreciative for it.
S1: What thoughts do you have about local journalism ? Do you feel informed about what's going on in your community ? Give us a call at (619) 452-0228. You can leave a message or you can email us at midday at pbs.org. We'd love to share your ideas here on the show. Don't forget to watch Evening Edition tonight at five for in-depth reporting on San Diego issues. Of course , we'll be back tomorrow at noon. And if you ever miss a show , you can find the Midday Edition podcast on all platforms. I'm Jade Hindman. Thanks for listening.
