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Ask anyone you run into on the street this question: How do you get your news? Inevitably, the response tends to be something along the lines of, “I really don’t watch or read the news unless I happen upon it on social media or maybe a family member or friend mentions something to me. It’s too depressing, and I think it is all biased one way or the other anyway.”
And yet, if you ask that same person on the street whether they care about what is happening in their hometown, the answer is almost always an unequivocable, “Yes, of course I do.” So, how do we reconnect our communities with each other and encourage meaningful civic engagement? We need to reexamine the role of journalism and reignite our relevancy, particularly on the local level. We have precious little time to waste.
The lack of trust in general news coverage and the sense that most, if not all of it is politically slanted, has grown along with the increasingly partisan coverage blanketing the cable news channels. Local broadcast news has also played a role here and we would be wise to get our own houses in order if we really expect to provide a valuable and reliable service with which viewers will continue to engage.
To that end, Adam Symson, E.W. Scripps president-CEO, recently penned an open letter to his colleagues promising a sea change in the way their television