UVA's Karsh Institute Previews Local News Ecosystem Study, "Dark Deserts" Research Released
Scholars at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy released a preview last month of new research on Virginia’s local news ecosystem.
Scholars at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy released a preview last month of new research on Virginia’s local news ecosystem. This research is the work of a team of UVA scholars in partnership with Virginia Humanities, American Press Institute, More Perfect, and the PATH Foundation.
The preview provides an explanation of the purpose and scope of the study:
Building on the foundation of trust in local news media, this landscape assessment aimed to capture all conventional media outlets that provided local news and information about Virginia, identifying their areas of coverage, categorizing the types of stories and content topics, and surveying those outlets to surface their key needs and priorities. In addition to providing a clearer picture of local journalism in the Commonwealth, this study intended (1) to be a resource for those who want to support a flourishing ecosystem of local news and information and (2) to elevate the importance of local journalism as a cornerstone of accountability, civic connection, and engagement in public life. This study consisted of three main parts: an inventory of outlets, an analysis of coverage, and a survey of outlets. A thumbnail sketch of each outlet was also included in the report, along with a detailed methods section.
This study was a first step toward understanding the complex and dynamic information ecosystem in Virginia. It did not capture the entire information environment, including other sources of news and information such as YouTube or Substack. The scope of this study was to provide a landscape assessment of conventional media outlets that was informative on its own and could serve as a foundation for additional research that would capture a comprehensive picture of the information environment in the Commonwealth.
Researchers identified 277 outlets producing news and information about the Commonwealth. Those outlets included TV and radio stations, newspapers and magazines, and digital platforms. Also included were outlets at institutions of higher education because they serve as sources of news for their communities and as important pipelines for professional journalism.
Outlets that were based in Virginia but focused their coverage on national news or issues were not included in this inventory.
Since only a preview of the research has been released, I won’t analyze all of the findings yet; it’ll only take you a few minutes to read them. But here are some noteworthy stats from the preview:
For-profit outlets made up the majority of news organizations in Virginia at 76.5%, while nonprofit outlets accounted for the remaining 23.5%.
More than half of the nonprofit outlets in the state (37 of 65) were student-led at colleges and universities.
Of the 2,518 articles examined, news event stories made up the overwhelming majority of coverage across outlets (85%). 10% were enterprise stories, which feature original or investigative reporting. Opinion writing was 5%.
78% of survey respondents reported an increase in audience size over the past two years, especially online—85% said their digital audience increased.
63% of outlets operated with five or fewer full-time employees, and 49% identified increasing staff capacity and/or growing their audience as critical to their long-term survival.
A majority of outlets (63%) said they were operating on annual budgets under $250,000 with five or fewer full-time employees.
Among nonprofit outlets, 63% said that an initial grant or donation was essential when launching the organization. Over half (60%) of those initial contributions were less than $250,000.
Nearly all survey respondents (94%) reported using social media to reach audiences, with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and YouTube as the most used platforms. Yet, 24% identified social media as one of their biggest competitors.
The preview also includes a link to a useful mapping tool that let’s you explore the local media landscape city by city and county by county. This tool was developed in partnership with the Scholars' Lab at the University of Virginia and could be of use to campaigns, organizations, and individuals seeking media attention. You can find a similar online mapping tool run by the NEWS Lab at William & Mary: the Local Memory Project.
As we await the full study from the Karsh Institute of Democracy, let’s finally ruminate on the irony of the study explicitly ignoring Substack, YouTube, and other non-institutional news platforms while, to my knowledge, this Karsh study has so far only been covered on such democratized outlets.
Zooming out to the national scene, a new study by researchers at the Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment at the University of Florida suggests the lack of robust local news ecosystems leads to less government transparency and less compliance with FOIA laws. Director of the Brechner FOI Project David Cuillier and Penn State University law student Brett Posner-Ferdman published the paper, “Dark deserts: Newspaper decline and its relation to government non-compliance with public records laws,” last month in the News Research Journal.
As John Volk recently reported for Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative:
“Where there are no newspapers and weakened newspaper systems, government secrecy is flourishing,” said David Cuillier, director of the Freedom of Information Project at the Brechner Center and author of the report. “Government officials see that journalists are hurting, and they’re taking advantage of that.”
To measure transparency, Cuillier and his colleague Brett Posner-Ferdman, a law student at Penn State, requested the same seven records from 44 state governments under each state’s public records law. They found that the states with fewer newspapers per capita were more likely to deny or ignore their requests. They also found that responsiveness to requests improved in states with stronger press associations. Overall, about a quarter of requests were fully complied with, while another quarter were outright denied or not responded to.
Notably, according to the paper, “[t]he study excluded Washington, D.C., and the six states that require in-state residency for public records requests (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia).”
It’s a relatively short read and potentially of interest at least to FOIA enthusiasts. For everyone else, the final paragraph of the paper may suffice:
This study provides some evidence that journalism matters in a democracy. States with a higher density of newspapers demonstrate better compliance with public record laws. Also, states with financially strong press associations demonstrate more transparent government. As the local news ecosystem continues to founder, fewer watchdogs will pursue public records, and government agencies may continue to gravitate toward secrecy. Additional attention should be given toward this troubling “dark desert” trend to ensure government is accountable to the people, and that journalists and others may serve as a check on secrecy, corruption and ultimately, tyranny.
Download “Dark deserts: Newspaper decline and its relation to government non-compliance with public records laws” here:
