States with Less Local News Have Higher Rates of Loneliness
Researchers found communities with more local journalists had lower loneliness, and a 10-point rise in low-news counties increased loneliness by 1.4 points.
2 Articles
2 Articles
States with less local news have higher rates of loneliness
The 2026 Local Journalist Index, this week by Muck Rack and the Rebuild Local News Coalition, contains a fair bit of bad news that may not surprise you: The number of working local journalists has plummeted over the last 25 years (and continued to decline last year), and the little coverage that’s left tends to focus more on topics like crime and sports than on health, education, or other civic issues. But as local news declines, there are a few…
How Local News Reduces Loneliness
When thinking about the harms caused by the collapse of local news, our minds might first turn to the practical: Less local news means more corruption, more government waste, and meager knowledge of candidates for local office. More recent research has also found that the local news crisis exacerbates polarization and misinformation. When community news contracts, the vacuum is filled by national media (more partisan) and social media (optimize…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left, 50% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
