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Columbia Global Reports

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

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Title: Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy
Author: Margaret Sullivan
ISBN: 9781733623780
Publisher: Columbia Global Reports
Published: 2020
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Condition: Used: Near Fine
Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.

C 1661186

Publisher Description:
How the current epidemic of news deserts and ghost papers threatens democracy


Ghosting the News tells the most troubling media story of our time: How democracy suffers when local news dies. From 2004 to 2015, 1,800 print newspaper outlets closed in the U.S. One in five news organizations in Canada has closed since 2008. One in three Brazilians lives in news deserts. The absence of accountability journalism has created an atmosphere in which indicted politicians were elected, school superintendents were mismanaging districts, and police chiefs were getting mysterious payouts. This is not the much-discussed fake-news problem--it's the separate problem of a critical shortage of real news.


America's premier media critic, Margaret Sullivan, charts the contours of the damage, and surveys a range of new efforts to keep local news alive--from non-profit digital sites to an effort modeled on the Peace Corps. No nostalgic paean to the roar of rumbling presses, Ghosting the News instead sounds a loud alarm, alerting citizens to a growing crisis in local news that has already done serious damage.


"An excellent introduction to the essential problem of our republic. With a wake-up call like this one, we still have a chance." ―Timothy Snyder