There is Still Hope for Local News Outlets

Getty Editorial

 As we have discussed a little throughout the semester, as the world becomes more and more connected, local news organizations become more and more nationalized. While this is still the exception and not the rule, as media corporations continue to amass organizations under their umbrellas, uniform and national reporting of local stories will be on the rise, but the Build Back Better Agenda is hoping to provide a boost to the industry as a whole, including the little guys. 

In President Bidens multi-trillion dollar social relief package hoping to pass the Senate, there is a large sum of money for a relatively unpublicized sector: local news organizations. The relief package will set aside $1.67 billion over the next five years for outlets that primarily cover local news. If this seems too good to be true, it sort of is. The package is not disregarding national news organizations and media conglomerates as many of the local and regional outlets are actually under those corporate umbrellas. There are many critics of the subsidies that this bill provides to news organizations but as we have experienced time and time again, the free and widespread dissemination of news is an integral aspect of a functioning democracy and these local outlets need money to do so in a dying arena. It may seem random but this a small act of democratic maintenance that this country desperately needs. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/28/business/media/build-back-better-local-news.html



Comments

  1. Blake LandonDecember 1, 2021 at 9:50 AM

    I appreciate the optimism but wow that is a waste of money. At least that billion and a half is not being spent on fighter jets, NASA, or any of the other countless government expenditures that have become normalized over the course of our nations history. That article makes me feel the same way as i would if the money was being invested in revitalizing our nations type writers. I guess If the money was going to real independent local news organizations, which i guess don't really exist anymore, and not satellite stations of national conglomerates i would feel better about it.

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