Worried about AI? Support local news
By Steve Waldman
Editor’s note: We recently hosted an event with Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement and Democracy Fund unpacking democracy funders’ priorities (with great survey data).
Steve Waldman, founder and president of Rebuild Local News, was surprised by two (seemingly conflicting) data points. His argument? The solution to “information disorder” (which funders are prioritizing) is all about local news.
We hope you find his piece useful!
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At a recent meeting hosted by Democracy Notes, researchers from Democracy Fund and PACE provided two data points that stopped me in my tracks.
First, a recent survey identified a significant drop (13%) in the percentage of democracy funders prioritizing work to ensure “an informed public through a robust media ecosystem and other educational efforts.”
Then, a second survey found that a huge area of interest was “information disorder,” defined as “misinformation, disinformation, deepfakes, etc.” (and I’m guessing perhaps the difficulty of separating fact from fiction that AI may exacerbate).
I sympathize with these funders; the threats to democracy are numerous, the needs almost bottomless, and the policy choices imperfect. I’d like to suggest, however, that the best way to deal with “information disorder” is through “a robust media ecosystem,” especially on the local level. We won’t make progress on mis- and disinformation if we don’t revitalize community journalism. As Columbia Journalism School’s Emily Bell put it, “We can’t fight fake news without saving local journalism.”
Information disorder and the collapse of local news
The collapse of local news is exacerbating the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Researchers have found that the collapse of local news has created a vacuum now filled by social media, which is more likely to increase information disorder. It also leads to more consumption of national news which tends to be more polarizing.
When the paper in Ogdensberg, New York, shut down, the local Republican leader James E. Reagan of St. Lawrence County suggested that misinformation was spreading faster as a result. “Once the Journal closed down so many people were turning to social media, to Facebook, anonymous blogs where people could make whatever accusations and allegations they wanted to without identifying who they were,” he said. “There is no one to sort out the truth from the fiction.” Because of the outcry, a nearby publisher recently revived the Ogdensburg Journal.
Second, people are more likely to spread misinformation if they trust news media less. Information disorder relates to the decline in faith in more traditional reporting. As people come to believe that journalists are “fake,” biased or acting in bad faith, they are more likely to believe and share information from other sources. The best way to build trust in journalism is locally, where news providers are already more trusted.
AI and information disorder
AI is on a path to worsen information disorder, at least on the local level. AI assistants tend to be more likely to hallucinate or provide inaccurate facts when there’s information scarcity. The less material to feed the system, the more likely it is to err. So news deserts are an AI nightmare. There are numerous examples of local hallucinations. Instead of saying “I don’t know,” AI tends to pull from less reliable sources like Reddit.
As of now, AI is also on a path to worsen the local news crisis — and, in a vicious cycle, make its own search results less reliable. The reason: traditional search links to publisher’s website; AI aspires to provide the full answer. So click-throughs to publishers are plummeting, along with the revenue that those clicks had previously generated. This will lead to the news deserts becoming drier, and the parched AI bots becoming even fuzzier.
What’s needed?
It’s tempting to think that technological or policy changes alone will solve information disorder. And a few are necessary, including reform of section 230, which gives platforms protection from lawsuits related to the content that is published by their users.
However, while technological solutions may help, the best solution is probably something incredibly pedestrian: adding about 25,000 more local reporters to the field. And to do that, we’ll need support for local news outlets, better infrastructure that makes financial stability achievable, and public policy that strengthens the civic infrastructure.
Steve Waldman is the founder and president of Rebuild Local News. He is also the co-founder and former president of Report for America.
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