For some years now, local newspapers have been closing down in the United States. The problem’s especially pronounced in regional areas, where ‘news deserts’ have emerged as the last local journalists shut up shop. 

More recently, hundreds of new websites that claim to contain local news have arrived to try to fill this void. On examination, many turn out to be full of what’s become known as ‘pink slime’ – poor quality news that often contain misinformation or is overtly partisan.

So, what exactly is being lost in an age of many more publishers, but far fewer ethical journalists? And what can be done about it? Should US regulators crack down on content that might be more accurately categorised as campaign material?

Today’s guest, Philip Napoli, explored these questions in a lecture at the University of Sydney on the 19th of June, ahead of the International Communications Association conference on the Gold Coast. His answers have major implications for public trust, and democracy.

Philip Napoli is James R. Shepley Distinguished Professor of Public Policy in Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He’s Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. His research focuses on media institutions, regulation and policy, and he’s collaborating on the University of Sydney’s Australian Research Council-funded project Valuing News: Aligning Individual, Institutional and Societal Perspectives.

Professor Napoli’s books include 2001’s Foundations of Communications Policy: Principles and Process in the Regulation of Electronic Media; 2003’s Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Marketplace; 2011’s Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences; and 2019’s Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age.

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