In local news deserts in the U.S., residents rely heavily on social media and other non-journalistic sources to stay informed, according to a comprehensive survey by the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University.
The survey revealed that among people who consume news daily in news deserts, a little more than half (51%) said they get local news from non-journalistic sources, like social media groups, influencers and friends and family. This means that by a small margin, more people in news deserts relied on non-journalistic sources than news organizations to keep informed.
The survey, conducted for Medill by the national polling firm Qualtrics, asked respondents which local news sources they relied upon.
