Stories

Catherine Devine (CSF 2024-25) shares reflections from the 2024 Media Impact JFunders annual meeting in San Francisco:

My first encounter with journalism was with my town’s Hometown Weekly—a modest paper that covered everything from local elections to dance recitals, graduations to high school football games. It was only recently, at the JFunders annual gathering at KQED’s headquarters in San Francisco, that I began to reflect on the role that little paper played in my life. Growing up, I didn’t know it, but the Hometown Weekly was like a quiet thread running through Dover, Massachusetts, weaving us together in subtle, necessary ways. It gave neighbors a reason to cheer on the local graduates, it handed a slice of fame to the high school all-stars, and in its own way, it held us—our community—steady, even if I was too young to recognize it.

There’s something undeniably powerful in that, a reminder of what local journalism can offer when it’s done right: a small, constant current that flows through a place, letting people feel seen, understood, and connected.

During the JFunders gathering, Snap Judgment founder Glynn Washington spoke about empathy as the backbone of good journalism. “Storytelling isn’t about convincing,” he said. “It’s about empathizing.” By offering audiences a way to “wear someone else’s skin,” storytelling combats division, strengthening our Democracy from the ground up.

In this political season, much of the critique journalism faces is tied to debates over “objectivity” and the scrutiny journalists apply to each candidate. The conversation often overlooks journalism’s essential role as the fourth estate—an institution critical to our democracy, now facing significant threats. As California State Senator Steve Glazer stressed at the gathering, public support for journalism cannot be a partisan issue. “Journalism is right there in the Bill of Rights,” he said in a keynote address.

Senator Glazer, well-known for his work championing local news, is the architect behind California’s $25 million Local News Fellowships, a boon for local reporting channeled through UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He also recently pushed for legislation to compel tech giants including Google and Meta to invest millions in local journalism. That bill was preempted by a settlement over the summer that resulted in smaller allocations to news organizations.

“Only about half the countries in the world today are considered democracies,” Senator Glazer said during his sobering presentation. “Seventy-one percent of the global population lives under autocratic rule.” As he called out nations commonly considered authoritarian, including Turkey, Argentina, and Hungary, the specter of democratic erosion felt like a headline too close to home. “Authoritarian backslides often start with restricting press freedom,” he warned. Journalism is a critical tool against ignorance, and without it, public power fades.

Many speakers at the gathering highlighted the erosion of local news in our country. We were reminded that 2024 was a year of increased consolidation in the journalism sector, and that the fate of most local publications seems to be that of a great swallowing—either by larger corporations or by market forces driving them into obsolescence.

I spoke with a media lawyer at the gathering who described the stark lack of funding and resources available to local journalists, including access to lawyers. The number of journalists continues to dwindle alarmingly as well: he told me about the dearth of court reporters in California. I later learned that about 25% of Los Angeles Superior Court reporter positions were vacant as of December 2023.

As a member of Gen Z, I’ve noticed a distinct reluctance among my peers toward choosing journalism as a career. And who can blame them? The financial realities of the industry make recouping the steep cost of a degree extremely challenging. This fills me with a quiet dread—so much of our democracy rests on a profession that’s barely hanging on. What happens when journalism is pushed to obsolescence?

In my own work examining how scientists and journalists might better collaborate, I’ve observed the need for the industry’s adaptation. If journalism is to weather the storms of misinformation, AI disruption, and attacks on credibility, the field must shed old frameworks and reimagine its guiding principles. In one panel, a funder shared how they’d developed a feature allowing donors who support journalism to explain the reason behind their contributions. Reporters then receive this feedback, which can provide encouragement as well as help shape and guide their work. Models such as this that draw from engagement journalism strike me as a kind of approach that could help local journalism survive.

As the gathering wrapped up, I couldn’t shake the feeling that journalism stands at an inflection point, charged with adapting to a world submerged in misinformation and polarization. But amid my anxiety, I still have hope. At the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, our commitment to supporting journalism’s survival through collaboration, combined with the sense of purpose shared by my colleagues, gives me a cautious hope about journalism’s future.