Examining Gaps in Journalism Curriculum to Solve the News Desert Crisis

Abstract

This exploratory study uses semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews ( n = 32) with journalism educators at universities in Europe, Australia, North America, and the South Pacific to examine the current state of local news pedagogy. While these journalism educators understand the significance of the news desert crisis, their efforts to engage their students around the issue often fall short. Using an ecological framework of system theory, this paper argues that journalism higher education has largely failed in helping repair or preventing the crisis facing local news.