New 6 month local news study exposes how the local news fails the public

In 2025, GRIID conducted a study of four local daily news agencies – MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM13 & WXMI 17 – from January 1st of 2025, through the end of June 2025.

In this 6 month news study, I looked at three critical community issues: 

• The Grand Rapids Public Schools
• Climate Change/Environmental Justice 
• Public Safety/GRPD 

I tracked these three 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 three 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, and climate change.

Summary of Findings 

• The local news media primarily rely on sources from systems of power and privilege – the courts, the GRPD, GRPS administrators, instead of utilizing more community based sources for stories. 
• Crime coverage dominates local news coverage and takes priority over public education and Climate Change.
• Local news coverage of the issues monitored in this study, received superficial reporting, with very little investigative reporting, especially around public policy matters.
• Local TV news often reported on crime using suspect images, which were disproportionately images of BIPOC people, thus perpetuating racist stereotypes. See Appendix #3. 
• Despite the fact that the first half of 2025 was one of the hottest on record, in the 9 local news stories that deal with extreme heat and extreme weather, only once were the words Climate Change used.
• A disproportionate amount of crime/community safety coverage also centered around the courts, especially since there was the before, during and after coverage for the trial of former GRPD cop Christopher Schurr, who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya. The total number of crime/community safety stories was 432, with 199 of them related to Patrick Lyoya’s death and the Schurr trial.
• There were a total of 9 stories that local news reported on the All Acess GRPD TV Show, with no investigation or critique of what that show was designed to communicate to the public.
• Out of the 433 stories that were about the GRPD, the courts or public safety matters, only once was there a story where the GRPD prevented a crime or violence.