BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Katherine Reinhard said local journalism still plays a critical role in helping voters navigate increasingly complex elections, even as campaigns rely more heavily on direct outreach and digital platforms.
Reinhard is publisher of the grassroots politics newsletter Armchair Lehigh Valley.
Speaking on this week’s episode of Political Pulse with host Tom Shortell, Reinhard said voters often are overwhelmed by fragmented information and still depend on trusted local reporting to make sense of races.
“When the local media do a really good job of covering elections, it makes it easier for voters to figure out who to vote for.”Katherine Reinhard
“I think local media is still really important to voters because voters don't want to be looking around for things," she said. "They want things delivered to them. It's hard. Can you trust this site?
“When the local media do a really good job of covering elections, it makes it easier for voters to figure out who to vote for.”
Reinhard said coverage today is less consistent than in past decades, pointing to newsroom cuts that have reduced the depth and frequency of political reporting.
“If you just look at the media presence, it's not nearly as robust as it was back in the '80s or '90s, compared to what we've been seeing in the last decade or so.
“I think things have improved in the last couple of years. I mean, we had some years where there was a drought of political news.”
Changing news, political landscape
Reinhard also reflected on earlier eras, when larger newsrooms produced far more intensive coverage of local races, compared with today’s leaner reporting environments.
“Back in the day — and I'm dating myself — I covered the Don Ritter/Jane Wells school race and we had two reporters at The Morning Call dedicated to that race. So we were pumping out stories almost every single day on that race.
“Also, the other races that were covered back then you covered everything, every press conference, everything that came out, every debate that was held. You went to it and you covered it.
“Now, as staffing got cut at all the local media over the years, you saw less and less of that to the point where there was hardly any coverage.”
Reinhard said that today’s voters also consume information differently, often engaging with elections in uneven bursts rather than consistently throughout a campaign.
“You have to think of the voter, and the voter zooms in and out at different times in a race," she said. "So there's people who, if you write a story in January, they read it, but then there's other people, they're going to just start reading about it tomorrow.
“So if you wrote about it back in February and then you're like, 'Well, I wrote about it. I'm done,' well, you lost a lot of people.”
Reinhard also said many voters remain undecided heading into the primary and urged audiences to rely on credible reporting as they make final decisions.
“In talking to people, people are … they're all over the map on who they're going to vote for and they keep changing their minds," she said.
"And I think that to me … like read the articles and don't try to read too much into everything and vote your heart.”
The full conversation is available in the YouTube player above. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss new episodes, available every Thursday.
