Jennifer Henrichsen is research director of the Washington Local News Ecosystem Project. She is also assistant professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Henrichsen holds a PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and is a former Fulbright Research Scholar.
CISLM intern Sachi Akmal interviewed Jennifer Henrichsen via Zoom. This interview was published on Nov. 13, 2024 and has been edited for length and clarity.
Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media: What’s a recent research project you’ve done that has helped us understand the challenges facing local news?
Jennifer Henrichsen: The most recent one is one that’s ongoing, actually. It is a mapping project for the state of Washington, and it came about because Washington State University received some funding from the legislature to develop a news fellowship program, which basically puts journalists in news organizations around the state. A little piece of that funding has gone to the development of this news mapping project, and I’m the research director of that. We are doing lots of things, including using qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the health of the local news ecosystem in Washington.
[EXPLORE: Our statewide bill tracker, which dives into the recent legislation in Washington State to support local news]
There hasn’t been an incredibly comprehensive understanding of the (local news) ecosystem in Washington. The League of Women Voters did a great study in 2022 that focused on print media, and that was the first of its kind in Washington. That came out right as we were receiving funding to do a comprehensive study.
We’re including print. We’re including digital-only publications, radio, TV — we’re trying to go super granular as well as expansive. We’re including different ethnic media sites, tribal sites, trying to get at every form of local news available in the state to try to understand where there are gaps in coverage, what types of communities are underserved by existing resources.
In some ways, this research hopefully will inform policy recommendations, and it should inform the decisions related to the news fellows. A separate (process) decides where those fellows go: news organizations have to apply to be hosts, and then fellows apply to be the partnered journalist — it’s sort of like a matchmaking experience. Our hope is that our research will identify really critical places of need.
CISLM: What should non-academics — local journalists or civically engaged community members — learn from that research?
JH: I think that journalism has a (public relations) problem in many ways. It seems like even though key stakeholders understand the connection between local news and civic engagement, political participation and the importance of those aspects to democracy, there’s a disconnect in the populace about that. We’re hoping that this research can shed light on the importance of local news and why local news can facilitate those levels of civic engagement that are pretty established now.
Something that came up with the policymakers is the notion that the funding model of journalism was eviscerated with the advent of the internet and Craigslist, taking away classifieds. That’s very well-established. But at the same time, it seems like there’s not an understanding among members of the public that journalism is something that you should pay for. It’s not viewed as critical infrastructure even though the expectation is that you can access that information about your community.
We’re also finding that there’s journalism pipeline issues. We’re lucky in (Washington) that we do have strong programs for journalism. But there are pipeline issues, where you might have a fairly strong graduating class and they might enter the working world, but after a couple years they depart because the wages are too low, the stress is really high. We also surveyed news outlets and something that came back was this increase in online harassment and other types of safety issues that journalists were experiencing. That, combined with low salaries, especially if you’re in an area that has a high cost of living, is leading to some departures.
[RELATED: Explore the pathways for journalists in our cornerstone Stayers and Leavers report, which details the pain points and high notes for journalists.]
CISLM: What’s a recent research project in local news that you admire?
JH: One report that we’ve admired is the University of Oregon’s mapping project: the way that they visualize their data, the way that they engaged with a lot of different key stakeholders in the community through interviews. We’ve looked at that report quite a bit when we were conceptualizing the research design for our own and because Oregan is just south of us.
[RELATED: Dive into our NC News and Info Census, a statewide audit of local news analysis by counties across North Carolina.]
One other element that we’ve been thinking about is, even though there is an increase of state level analysis, there’s not really state-by-state level (analysis). You don’t often see a report that includes Washington and Oregon together. Part of that is because methodologies differ, project timelines differ. But that could be quite insightful for a particular region like you see at the national level — like Northwestern has been doing with this local news project in the last couple of years in particular, and before that, of course, at UNC. But you don’t necessarily have that state-by-state, so that’s partly why we looked at Oregon.
CISLM: Why does local news research matter?
JH: I think a lot of political (communication) scholars, journalism studies scholars, and political scientists are increasingly documenting what happens when local news goes away, when it shrinks, or when it totally vanishes. Oftentimes, what happens is communities’ critical information needs, which are very important, they go unmet. The type of content that’s available to them isn’t answering really key questions that they need to live their lives — information about civic life or politics or emergencies.
I was even thinking the other day, it’s hard for us to know over here — I’m in Pullman, on the eastern side of the state — when there’s a wildfire. You can walk outside and you smell the smoke, and you’re like, ‘Where is it?’ And you have to dig for that information. And yet, that’s so critical for the families and the people who live in the region. Critical information needs often go unmet when there’s a lack of local news or a decline in an outlet being able to provide significant coverage.
CISLM: What excites you about the future of local news?
JH: One project that is of particular interest to me, and that excites me, is the Local News Impact Consortium, which is funded by the Knight Foundation and is led by a steering committee of scholars across the nation — I’m a member of that consortium. Basically, the whole goal of it is to bring scholars and some practitioners together to address these ongoing crises facing local news by developing methodologies that can be standardized, by sharing data, sharing research, making sure that we’re not recreating the wheel, and instead looking to one another and learning from one another and figuring out best practices in this space, especially because the landscape changes so swiftly, and the ways of categorization thus also have to shift.
One other thing that is exciting about the local news is the statewide initiative. I’m thinking of Washington. I’m thinking of California. This is a very novel concept of providing funding from the legislature to have journalists embedded in news organizations in communities that desperately need it. I think if more state legislatures did that it would be such an important way forward for local news. Having that arrangement where the news fellows are independent from the state, and yet they’re able to carry out their work because of state support. It’s really interesting to see how that goes, but it’s so far so good.
CISLM: What helps you get through a long day of work?
JH: I love what I do. I guess you can be tired at the end of the day, even if you love what you do, but I think it does help. I absolutely love doing research, and I love writing about it. Knowing that the research that you’re doing is trying to solve fairly complicated, complex questions that are facing society gives a lot of meaning and purpose to your work. Knowing that you can reach a wide variety of audiences depending on the type of research that you’re doing and the platforms in which you’re publishing is also rather validating.
On a more personal note, I have a family, so I think that (while) it can be challenging to have a balance, it’s nice because it’s such a break in some ways. Mentally, you have to be totally different because you’re fully present with your children, and so you have to stop thinking, in a way. That can give you sort of a nice space that can then rejuvenate you to go back and hit it hard the next day.
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