COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 04/11/2019
Andrea Wenzel and Letrell Deshan Crittenden
Even as local newspapers close—nearly 1,800 have stopped publishing since 2004—they remain irreplaceable sources of reporting. But some local readers perceive reporting by the remaining outlets to be about, rather than for them, a distinction key to the problem of mistrust between communities and journalists. This discrepancy often troubles historically marginalized readers who are socially distant but geographically near to journalists who report on them.