Midterm elections in news deserts: This researcher studies the problem at work and sees it at home

Reliable Sources

CNN

News

3.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2018

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Penelope Abernathy discusses her new report, "The Expanding News Desert," with Brian Stelter. She expects a dearth of news and info in rural areas to impact midterm elections. Abernathy doesn't just study this problem, she happens to live in a part of North Carolina that is considered a "news desert." She discusses potential solutions and the future of local journalism.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Brian Selter. Welcome to this week's Reliable Sources Podcast.
0:05.0	This weekly conversation in between our Sunday television broadcast
0:10.0	is our chance to go more in-depth with media leaders and newsmakers.
0:15.0	And this week we're taping a few days ahead of the dramatic 2018 midterm elections.
0:22.0	It feels like the whole country is on edge wondering
0:26.2	what's about to happen. But I'm wondering about something else. There are so many
0:31.6	races in so many districts and some of them are not receiving the
0:36.6	coverage they deserve. This is a news deserts problem. There's been this growth of something called news
0:44.2	deserts, these areas of the United States where there's little or no news coverage.
0:49.0	As local news hollows out, are Americans getting the political information they need?
0:55.0	Let's talk about it with my guest today, Penny Abernathy.
1:00.0	She's a former executive at the Wall Street Journal in the New York Times.
1:03.0	Now she's the Night Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics
1:06.0	at the University of North Carolina.
1:08.0	And she's out with a brand new report on the consequences of these news deserts.
1:14.0	Penny, thanks for being here.
1:16.0	Well, thank you for having me.
1:18.0	I think we should start by defining news deserts.
1:22.0	What does it mean to live in a news desert?
1:26.5	Well, I originally defined a news desert as a community that lacked a local news
1:31.6	outlet.
1:33.2	What has become apparent to me over the last decade is it's not just the loss of a physical
	...

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