Local news is an important part of many Black Americans’ information diet. Overall, about three-quarters of Black adults in the United States say they see or hear news coverage about their local community at least sometimes. Around six-in-ten (58%) say local journalists in their area are mostly in touch with their local community. And by a wide margin, more Black Americans who at least sometimes get news about their local community perceive that coverage as fair than unfair (44% vs. 12%).
These findings are part of a broader Pew Research Center study of Black Americans and news, which found generally negative feelings toward news coverage of Black people. Our previous research also has found that Black Americans are more likely than members of other racial and ethnic groups to closely follow local news.
Pew Research Center conducted this analysis as part of a broader study of Black Americans’ experiences, habits and attitudes around news and information. The main source of data for this study is a Center survey of 4,742 U.S. adults who identify as Black. Black adults include those who say their race is Black alone and non-Hispanic, Black and at least one other race and non-Hispanic, or Black and Hispanic.
The survey was conducted online from Feb. 22 to March 5, 2023, among a sample of U.S. Black adults. This sample included 1,745 respondents from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP) and an additional 2,997 respondents from Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel (KP). The ATP and KP are both online survey panels recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. This survey was administered only to adults who identified as Black and was weighted to be representative of the U.S. Black adult population by gender, age, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Here’s a closer look at this topic, based on the Center’s recent survey of 4,742 U.S. Black adults:
How often do Black Americans get local news?
Just over a third of Black Americans (36%) say they see or hear news coverage about their local community extremely or fairly often, while an additional 39% say they encounter local news sometimes.
These experiences are more common among older Black adults, as well as those who say that more than half of the people in their community are Black. Black adults ages 65 and older (46%) are twice as likely as those under 30 (23%) to see news coverage about their local community extremely or fairly often. Similarly, 42% of Black adults who say their community is more than half Black say they often see local news coverage, compared with about a third of those who live in communities with other racial compositions.
In addition to asking about local news coverage, the survey also asked about local news outlets as a news source. Overall, 41% of Black adults say they get news and information from local news outlets extremely or fairly often. This is slightly higher than the shares who say the same about national news outlets (35%), social media sites (35%), or friends, family and acquaintances (33%).
Views toward local news coverage and local journalists
Black Americans tend to express more positive than negative views toward local journalists and news coverage.
For example, Black Americans are more likely to say local journalists are mostly in touch (58%) rather than out of touch (38%) with their local community. And among Black adults who see or hear news about their local community at least sometimes, 44% say that on the whole, coverage of their community is very or somewhat fair – compared with just 12% who say it is very or somewhat unfair. About four-in-ten (41%) say the coverage is neither fair nor unfair.
On both of these questions, older Black Americans are more likely than younger adults to express the more positive view – that journalists are mostly in touch with their community and that local news coverage is generally fair. The same is true for Black Democrats compared with Black Republicans, perhaps reflecting higher levels of trust in the news media in general among Democrats.
Responses to these questions are closely linked: Those who say journalists in their area are mostly in touch with their local community are also much more likely to see local news coverage as very or somewhat fair.
The survey also found that 48% of Black adults say they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the accuracy of news and information from local news outlets. This is slightly higher than the 44% who say the same about national news outlets, and much higher than other sources of information such as friends and family (35%) or social media sites (18%).
There is no clear consensus among Black Americans about whether there is too little, too much or about the right amount of local news coverage in their community. A quarter of Black adults say local news outlets cover their local community less than they should, while 7% say there is too much coverage of their local community. The largest share (40%) say the level of coverage is about right, while an additional 26% say they are not sure.
Community connection and views toward local news
One consistent pattern extends throughout these responses: Black Americans who say they feel extremely or very attached to their local community are more likely to hear or see local news, and to hold positive views toward that coverage and toward local journalists.
For instance, among those who say they feel extremely or very attached to their community, about half (52%) say they see or hear news coverage about their local community at least fairly often. That is twice the share of those who are not too or not at all attached to their local community (26%).
Those who more frequently get news from local outlets are generally more inclined to say local news coverage is fair and that local journalists are in touch with their community. But there is at least one exception to this pattern: While Black Americans who live in mostly Black communities are more likely than those who don’t to engage with local news, they also are slightly more inclined than other Black Americans to say that local journalists are out of touch with their community. Among Black Americans who say their community is more than half Black, 43% say their local journalists are out of touch with their community, compared with 34% of those whose communities are less than half Black.
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
