Taylor Kilgore
Isthmus' first Community Newsroom session.
The first of what we hope will be a series of Community Newsrooms.
Americans, in general, don’t have a lot of trust in the media.
Gallup has tracked the matter over the years, sticking with a question it first asked in 1972: “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly? A great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?”
Three-quarters of those polled in 1972 said they had either a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media, while less than one-third did so in Gallup’s January 2024 poll; 33% last year said they didn’t have much trust in media at all.
But this poll, and others like it, lump all “media” together. When polls focus on local and not national media, the numbers get a whole lot better.
In a January 2024 survey by Pew Research, more than two-thirds said that their local journalists were in touch with their community and that their local news outlets reported news accurately and covered the most important stories. More than 60% said the outlets were transparent and served as watchdogs on local political leaders.
There seems to be a yin and yang between a sense of belonging and local news. “Americans who feel a strong sense of connection to their community are more likely to engage with local news, say that local news outlets are important to the community, and rate local media more highly overall,” according to a summary of the poll.
The less-good news is that while people have generally favorable views of their local news organizations, they engage less than they used to. Just 22% of those polled by Pew in 2024 said they followed local news very closely, down from 37% in 2016. They also access their news differently — about one-third of those polled said they sometimes get their news from a daily newspaper, with about the same number getting local news from government agencies or local newsletters and listservs.
All of us in the news biz spend a lot of time thinking about how to reach and engage with readers. “Meet your audience where they are” is the idea that drives media organizations to experiment with video, podcasts, TikTok and collaborations with “influencers” — people who have a following on social media either for content they create or as a community leader.
We also seek ways to build trust and connection, including by trying to demystify how journalism works. So last month, the staff of Isthmus went retro and organized a Community Newsroom at the Goodman South Madison Library to meet readers and community members in person, the first of what we hope will be a series of such events. We were there to hear what was on people’s minds, answer questions about coverage and mull story ideas together. We hadn’t settled on a format and I thought we’d just mill about talking informally. But we all ended up in a circle talking together. It was a wonderful discussion.
One attendee suggested giving more coverage to how people are responding to the impacts of the Trump administration. Another wanted to see more stories on K-12 education. Focus on our collective humanity, yet another urged. What about the stories of immigrants in our community?
One of the people who attended this event, Simpson Street Free Press editor and UW-Madison student Alan Cruz, had given some thought to the question he wanted to ask. It was a doozy.
What role should journalists and community members play in responding to the barrage of recent attacks on press freedom?
Since taking office, the Trump administration has withdrawn aid for international broadcasters Voice of America and Radio Liberty; canceled the media subscriptions for federal agencies; banned the Associated Press from the White House press pool due to the AP’s refusal to follow Trump’s lead in calling the “Gulf of Mexico” the “Gulf of America”; and limited seats at press briefings for some news organizations in favor of conservative outlets that support the president.
The president has continued his rhetoric, calling PBS and NPR, which receive federal funding, a “waste of money” and saying that “he would love to defund them.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republicans also accused the networks of liberal bias at a March congressional hearing and, the next day, Greene refused to answer a question from a British Sky News reporter, telling her to “go back to your country.”
The president has also championed lawsuits aimed at U.S. news media and announced tariffs that will raise prices for news organizations, like us, that publish in print.
In mid-March, Isthmus was notified by our printer that if a 25% tariff on newsprint and Hi-Brite paper goods imported from Canada goes through on April 2 as threatened, our printing costs will be going up 8%. We've now been told that paper, so far, is exempt.
To get back to Cruz’s question, there has been pushback from journalism organizations. The Society of Professional Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists and other groups have defended the work of Voice of America and other entities operating overseas, saying in a statement that they play a “vital role in reaching audiences living under authoritarian governments.” Eliminating them is “a significant blow to press freedom — and a gift to autocrats worldwide,” the statement continued. It urged Congress to “reaffirm the U.S. government’s commitment to a free and independent media at home and abroad.”
But is the wider community fighting back? Not so much. There are protests around the country against cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and federal agencies, but so far no public outcry against efforts to curtail press freedoms and target reporters.
Perhaps people are simply not following these developments. In a March 2025 Pew survey, just 36% of respondents said they had heard a lot about the relationship between Donald Trump and the press; twice that number were actively following this in 2017, at the start of Trump’s first term in office.
Also in the 2025 poll, about 46% of U.S. adults said the Trump administration has been too critical of the media while 22% said it hasn’t been critical enough.
Here in Madison, I find myself defending the profession a lot these days — more so in response to criticism about diminished coverage in our community than to general derogatory comments. I see education and engagement as an important piece of this, since I don’t think most people truly understand how the newspaper industry has struggled in the last couple of decades. So before there can be pushback against attacks on journalists and press freedoms, there has to be understanding and appreciation of what we do.
We have our work cut out for us.
