Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy

Margaret Sullivan — the Washington Post's media columnist and former public editor of the New York Times — provides in this short, essential book the most accessible account available of the collapse of local journalism in the United States and its consequences for democratic governance. The statistics are alarming: over 1,800 American newspapers have closed since 2004, creating vast 'news deserts' in which local government, courts, school boards, and other institutions operate without any journalistic scrutiny. The consequences for corruption, for public health, and for the quality of democratic deliberation have been documented in a growing body of research.

The relevance to the information environment is direct: news deserts are influence operation-friendly environments. When there is no local journalism to provide factual grounding, to investigate claims, or to hold local officials accountable, the information space is filled by social media, partisan websites, and coordinated disinformation campaigns. Sullivan's documentation of what is lost when local journalism disappears — and what has and hasn't worked in attempts to replace it — is essential context for understanding why the information environment has deteriorated in specific geographic areas and why those areas have proved most susceptible to disinformation campaigns.