SHOPTALK

Level the playing field forlocalnews .................

The lack of high-quality, objective local news outlets is a cause for great concern. Residents are not adequately informed and are largely uninvolved in their communities and local governance. Disinformation spreads as more people rely on social media, forums and partisan news sites for their information.

Federal legislation was introduced recently to help "save" local news. Facebook and Google have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support local news. However, government subsidies and financial contributions from social media companies will not save local news. We need a level playing field.

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act was introduced in Congress. The Act would provide tax credits and incentives for people to subscribe to local newspapers, donate to local news nonprofits, advertise with local news outlets and allow publishers to hire local journalists.

While all this may help, it will not fix the root of the problem. The playing field is stacked against local news publishers. In addition, government support of media raises questions about journalistic ethics. Journalists need to be independent, but some may question their independence if they receive government subsidies.

Facebook and Google have invested in grants, programs to encourage people to start local news sites, training and support. These resources have enabled a few dozen local news outlets to form and others to stay afloat. However, since more than 1,800 communities in the US are without a local newspaper or site, it appears the efforts have not had a strong impact. Local news should and can be sustainable without outside subsidies.

It starts with equity on the content side of the business. Social media companies show posts to a small percentage of users, including news organization posts, reducing traffic to those sites. News organizations can pay to boost their posts on social media outlets, but many local newsrooms don’t have the budget.

After a new law passed in Australia forcing social media giants to negotiate with newsrooms and pay them for using their content, Facebook and Google agreed to pay. However, deals have primarily been made with big publishers, not small, locally owned publications.

While Google and others say they have done much to stop stealing content from creators, many websites routinely lift content, reducing site traffic for the original creators. Also, social media users post the text or screenshots from articles with no penalty, depriving the news outlet of that traffic.

In addition, social media and other publications aggregate content, taking much content before providing a backlink to the source or providing no backlink and merely naming the source. This does an online publication no good.

Facebook and other social media giants have enabled the creation of groups where misinformation runs rampant. In addition, the group administrators make their group the go-to place in town for residents, directly competing with a local news publisher for the same audience.

Often, these administrators may refuse links to legitimate news publications to control the news and the message, further undermining the success of the local news site. Solving this could create more equity on the content side of the news media business.

Unfortunately, these solutions cannot be legislated but need to be initiated by social media companies, which have no incentive to change. Here is where the government can act. Unfortunately, the federal government is mired in dysfunction and partisanship. The silver lining is that both political parties are upset with the social media companies, albeit for different reasons. Perhaps we can find common ground, but don't hold your breath.