The University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism has released its first-ever Maryland Local News Ecosystem Study, which examines the state of local news in Maryland.
The report includes a landscape assessment aimed at identifying all the outlets offering news and information in the state; a content analysis of those outlets offering news; a comprehensive survey of editors and news directors regarding their needs, challenges, staffing and finances; and thumbnail descriptions of each local news outlet in Maryland.
“Local news is vital to an informed citizenry and a healthy democracy,” Merrill College Dean Rafael Lorente said. “The college’s researchers have sounded an alarm for the residents of Maryland. Our local news ecosystem is suffering and needs help now. They have also provided the rest of the country with a cookbook for how to examine their own states.”
The study identifies 176 outlets producing news and information about the state — ranging from conventional TV, radio stations and newspapers to neighborhood blogs and Facebook pages — of which roughly 156 can be described as news or journalistic.
The study was led by Tom Rosenstiel, Eleanor Merrill Scholar on the Future of Journalism and Professor of the Practice at Merrill College, and Jerry Zremski, director of the college’s Local News Network.
Students Nira Dayanim, John McQuaid, Loretta Pulwer and Khushboo Rathore were part of the research team. Alum Jenna Cohen prepared the graphics. Student Joel Lev-Tov prepared the landscape study.
The goal is that the first study sets down a useful baseline, and the intention is to repeat the study in future years, to track what has changed and expand it to include what may have been missed. The goal is also for the study to serve as a model for journalism schools elsewhere to conduct similar research in their states.
The study was supported by grants from the Andrew and Julie Klingenstein Family Fund through the college’s Local News Network, by Merrill College and by UMD’s Maryland Democracy Initiative.
The findings of the report were revealed at “Solving the Local News Crisis,” a two-day summit last Thursday and Friday about the local news crisis in and around Maryland, which was presented by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Baltimore Banner, Merrill College and the MDI.
For more information, contact:
Josh Land
joshland@umd.edu
301-405-1321
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