2024 Local News Monitoring Project: Misinformation, omission, denial and the failure to serve the public good

In 2024, GRIID conducted a study of four local daily news agencies – MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM13 & WXMI 17 – from January 1st of 2024, through Friday, December 20th, 2024.  

The study looked at four critical community issues:

• Elections in Kent County and Grand Rapids – candidates, ballot initiatives and campaign financing
• Climate Change/Environmental Justice
• The Grand Rapids Public Schools
• Public Safety/GRPD

I tracked these four themed news stories from the online portals of each of the four news agencies. All of the hyperlinks to those stories are part of Appendix #1. In addition to monitoring all of these stories, I monitored the sources used in each story, the racial and gender make up of the sources used (only for TV stories) and how the stories were framed. All of this data is included in Appendix #2.

For the Public Safety/GRPD stories that I monitored, I also tracked images of crime suspects that appeared on the three local TV stations, which I include as part of Appendix #3

What follows is a breakdown of each of the four critical community issues that I monitored, with some content analysis.

Monitoring local news media is an important tactic that can help us all think about what kind of information we are receiving. The way stories are reported (or not reported) can influence public opinion, just as the sources that are use and they way local new stories are framed. 

It is true that we live in an information saturated world, but what is different about local news media is that they might be the only sources of information we have access to regarding what is happening in our community. Understanding this fact can help us see the tremendous responsibility local news agencies have to serve what the Federal Communications Commission refers to as, “serving the public interest.”

In addition, it is important that we not just focus on individual news stories and what they mean. What media analysis have been saying for years is that we need to pay attention to the cumulative effect of coverage around issues like policing, public education, local elections and climate change. You can access the full 132 page report here.