Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter . View interactive version here. Executive summary When local news mapping gained prominence a decade ago, the widespread concern was with news deserts. Now that local news—from journalism outlets, civic information providers, or independent newsfluencers—is available via social media, newsletters, YouTube, and elsewhere, people are more likely to feel adrift in information oceans. This paradigm shift requires us to reinvent our understanding of local news provision. At the same time, the advent of artificial intelligence and advanced computational tools has allowed local news mapping to make giant leaps forward. Research can now go beyond the traditional local news outlet census to analyze content for both breadth of topics covered and detailed geographic coverage areas—down to the census-tract level. In addition, it has become clear that people no longer rely on local journalism outlets alone (where they exist) for important local news and information.…
