People who live in news deserts are finding their
own ways to gain information — through social media feeds, influencers and family and friends, according to a new study by the Medill Local Initiative at Northwestern University.
Indeed, of those who follow the news daily in local news deserts, 51% get it from non-journalistic (i.e., non-professional) sources. And many don’t even think they are missing anything. Here
is a listing of their sources, including legacy channels:
Social media groups or pages — 42%
Local TV stations — 41%
Search
engines — 35%
Friends and family — 33%
Social media influencers — 30%
Local radio stations or local
news podcasts — 25%
advertisement
advertisement
Digital-only local news websites — 23%
The only products in the top five are local TV stations.
Perhaps
because of the dearth of coverage, 46% of news desert readers trust local news. But that is far outpaced by the 59% who live in areas with news coverage.
Here’s the
problem.
“You might feel like you’re part of a close-knit community that knows what’s going on, but places with a lack of journalism are missing an
external source of information and a system of accountability of people in power,” said Zach Metzger, director of the Medill State of Local News Project, who led the survey for Medill.
“The danger is what happens when they rely on social media because they have lost the journalistic view of things they are no longer able to see in their daily
lives.”
Only 15% of those who live in news deserts subscribe or donate to a newspaper, versus 33% of individuals in news-abundant areas.
Similarly, 22%
of people in news-abundant locales have spoken with or been interviewed by a journalist in the past five years, compared to 9% in news deserts.
And, only 20% of individuals in
news-deprived areas have taken action on a community issue based on a news story. But 34% have done so in areas with adequate news coverage.
The U.S. has lost roughly 3,500
newspapers in the past 20 years. There are 212 news desert counties, mostly in rural areas, the study states.
This study was conducted from July 22nd to August 8th,
2025. Working on behalf of Medill, Qualtrics surveyed 1,000 individuals, half in news deserts and half from counties with abundant news sources.
Here is a link to the study report.