Close to Home.
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
If you had to guess, how many times have you seen breaking news show up in your news feeds this week? Daily? Hourly? More?
With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, it can feel like every day brings a new emergency. Nancy Gibbs calls it an information emergency.
Gibbs, the former editor-in-chief of TIME, and now director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, described it during a webinar this past January. Part of the problem, she said, is that "our attention is finite, yet the competition for it makes communicating much more challenging.” So, everything gets packaged as breaking news, built to grab our attention. Worse, she noted, we're "effectively living in separate information universes" even in the same household.
So, where do we go for grounding?
I believe we go local. Local news is one of the few places where neighbors, whatever their politics, still share the same set of facts: what the school board decided, where the polling places are, who's on the ballot. And as of last Friday, my home state of Maryland is invested in going local, too.
On October 16, Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order directing Maryland state agencies to prioritize local news organizations when they buy advertising, with a goal of sending at least half of that spending to Maryland news outlets: print, digital, and broadcast.
It's the news and information we can rely on, close to home.
As Rebecca Snyder, executive director of the MDDC Press Association, put it, the order "recognizes that local news is essential infrastructure for communities and it treats it that way."
Essential infrastructure.
Like roads, power grids, and water lines.
To help ward off information emergencies.
This win for Maryland news outlets and its residents hits close to home for me. In the spring of 2020, as a pandemic swept the nation, Mission Partners had the privilege of helping launch and lead communications for the Rebuild Local News coalition under the brilliant vision of Steve Waldman. One of the coalition's very first asks of Congress, in its founding letter that May, was to send half of all federal advertising spending to the public through local media.
The argument made sense then, and it makes just as much sense now. The government already spends this money to reach the public, on everything from public health campaigns to public service announcements. Why not route it through local outlets, strengthening both the message and the newsrooms that communities depend on? We made that case alongside public health leaders, who understood better than most that a health message only works if people trust where it's coming from.
Six years later, seeing those same ideas become policy in my home state is what it looks like when good ideas and the people behind them don't give up.
I've been a champion for local journalism for two decades now. I built my first company pitching stories to local media, and we've had the honor of supporting dozens of local news and information efforts since then. Investing close to home matters, especially when it comes to news, information, and the strengthening of our democracy.
One of my favorite resources on the topic is one that I've shared before: "How We Know Journalism is Good for Democracy", by my friend Josh Stearns and his co-author Christine Schmidt. It's worth sneaking into your feed amid all that breaking news, because the bottom line is critical: strong, local journalism means more people turn out to vote, and that's what our democracy needs to work well.
As Election Day approaches, here are a few ways you can consider investing in news and information close to home, too:
Look at our own ad spend. If you’re buying ads for a campaign, an event, or an awareness push, ask what share is reaching your community through local outlets, and consider if it could be a higher percentage in next year's budget.
Make your local news your election guide. Before Nov 3, find your local outlet's voter guide and share it with your neighbors. It's a nonpartisan way to share news and information with those who might also feel like everything is breaking around them.
Pay for it. If you rely on local or public media for trusted information, now's a good time to subscribe, donate, or underwrite where you can. We're still in an information emergency, and local newsrooms can't help us through it if they don't survive it. Do your part to keep your local news outlet in place.
Bottom line: when everything feels like it's breaking, look closer to home. Local news may not be the loudest voice in your feed, but local news will tell you what's actually happening where you live. That's the grounding we need in an information emergency, and it's worth investing in.
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
