What we don't know can't hurt us--or can it? A school board vote quietly reshapes your child's education. A mayoral candidate's record goes unexamined. A planning board approves industrial development beside a residential neighborhood. Such decisions rarely unfold in secret; rather, they occur in plain sight, and it is the responsibility of local news journalists to inform their communities. However, as local news outlets decline across the United States, it is evident that communities are losing more than headlines. They are losing information that allows citizens to participate meaningfully in civic life, often without realizing what is being lost or how to restore it.
A veteran journalist with nearly four decades of experience, Rick Thames has served as a reporter, city editor, and executive editor at newspapers spanning several states. He has also taught journalism at the university level. In this book, he shares firsthand experiences in which ethical local journalism positively influenced institutions and strengthened communities. He analyzes the forces that have dissolved public trust in the press and offers pathways to rebuild this loss of trust. In addition to offering a defense of local journalism, Thames calls on readers to consider what is lost when responsibly reported local news disappears.
