Volume 5 Issue 1, Article
Tome 5 numéro 1, Article

Teresa Goff, Izza Adil, Sunmeet Kour, and Gage Patte

Abstract

This literature review investigates the potential of college and university newsrooms to mount a response to the decline of local journalism in Canada. To understand academic-news models, the review explores key drivers behind the decline of local journalism, including the effects of media consolidation, economic pressures, changes in how audiences consume news, and recent cuts to college and university journalism programs. It considers how these shifts contribute to the rise of misinformation and a decrease in civic participation. This review also addresses the challenges local outlets face maintaining operations within the media landscape. We argue academic-news partnerships could serve as an important step toward rebuilding and sustaining community-based news even as journalism programs contract. Such partnerships are shown to enhance local reporting, give students meaningful professional experience and restore public trust in local journalism. The review draws on examples from Durham Region to illustrate how college and university newsrooms like The Chronicle can contribute to local information ecosystems in communities where traditional media presence has weakened.

Keywords: local news, news deserts, academic-news partnerships, Durham Region

Résumé

Cette revue de la littérature examine le potentiel des salles de rédaction collégiales et universitaires à répondre au déclin du journalisme local au Canada. Afin de mieux comprendre les modèles de collaboration entre le milieu universitaire et les médias, elle analyse les principaux facteurs derrière ce déclin, notamment les effets de la concentration des médias, les pressions économiques, les transformations des habitudes de consommation de l’information, ainsi que les récentes compressions dans les programmes de journalisme des collèges et des universités. Elle s’intéresse également à la manière dont ces changements favorisent la montée de la désinformation et la baisse de la participation civique. Cette revue aborde aussi les défis auxquels les médias locaux sont confrontés pour maintenir leurs activités dans le paysage médiatique actuel. Nous avançons que les partenariats entre établissements d’enseignement et médias pourraient constituer une étape importante pour reconstruire et soutenir l’information communautaire, même alors que les programmes de journalisme se contractent. Ces collaborations ont démontré leur capacité à renforcer la couverture locale, à offrir aux étudiants une expérience professionnelle significative et à restaurer la confiance du public envers le journalisme local. La revue s’appuie sur des exemples provenant de la région de Durham pour illustrer comment des salles de rédaction collégiales et universitaires, comme The Chronicle, peuvent contribuer aux écosystèmes informationnels locaux dans les communautés où la présence des médias traditionnels s’est affaiblie.

Mots clés :  information locale, déserts médiatiques, partenariats entre milieux universitaires et médias, région de Durham

ARTICLE

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Academic news partnerships in local journalism: A literature review

Teresa Goff, Izza Adil, Sunmeet Kour, and Gage Patte

 

INTRODUCTION

This literature review seeks to understand how college and university news operations can help fill the growing gap in local journalism by examining various examples, including Voices in Durham, a community journalism project. Across Canada, the closure and consolidation of local news outlets have led to the emergence of “news deserts,” communities left without reliable, comprehensive sources of local information. While the term “communications desert” was first coined by journalist Laura S. Washington (2011) to describe places where vital information fails to reach neighbourhoods, the concept has since evolved. The Hussman School of Journalism now defines a news desert more broadly as a rural or urban community with limited access to the kind of credible, local journalism that supports democracy at the grassroots level (Abernathy & Dwyer, 2022). This review examines the underlying causes contributing to the decline of local news, assesses current efforts to mitigate this crisis, and investigates innovative, community-based strategies for revitalizing local journalism. In doing so, it considers the potential role of post-secondary newsrooms as sustainable contributors to the ever-evolving local media ecosystem.

Between 2008 and February 1, 2024, 518 local news operations, including print and broadcast, closed across 344 Canadian communities. During the same period, 224 new local news outlets launched in 156 communities, resulting in a net loss of 294 outlets nationwide (Lindgren & Corbett, 2024, p. 3). Community newspapers, defined by the Local News Research Project as those publishing fewer than five times per week, accounted for 77% of closures in 2023 (Lindgren & Corbett, 2024, p. 3). The cumulative impact of these losses has been substantial: approximately 2.5 million Canadians now live in postal codes with one or no local news outlets, doubling the proportion of such areas since 2008 (Macdonald & Macdonald, 2025). Experts warn these losses leave communities without the essential information required for civic engagement and democratic participation. Research indicates this undermines democratic health. The Public Policy Forum’s (2025) report, The Lost Estate: How to Put the Local Back in Local News, underscores the critical role of local journalism in sustaining democratic processes in Canada (Phillips et al., 2025). An Ipsos poll conducted in January 2025 revealed 87% of Canadians believe local news is important to a well-functioning democracy, with 61% agreeing reduced local coverage results in less knowledge about public institutions, and 58% noting weakened community ties and participation (Public Policy Forum, 2025, p. 10). This recognition of the importance of local news illustrates how crucial it is for ensuring citizens receive accurate information necessary for making informed decisions, particularly in the context of local governance and community issues.

The year 2023 marked a devastating time for Canadian journalism, as the bankruptcies of Metroland Media Group and Métro Média alone led to the closure of 83 outlets (Macdonald & Macdonald, 2025). The crisis deepened in August 2023 when Meta began blocking Canadian news content on platforms like Instagram and Facebook in response to the federal Online News Act, passed two months earlier. This legislative move, intended to force tech giants to compensate news outlets for content shared on their platforms, led Meta and, briefly, Google to restrict access to news in Canada (Government of Canada, 2024; Meta., 2023; Yousif, 2023). These actions curtailed the public’s access to timely, locally-relevant news, exacerbating the already shrinking information landscape, which is why it is important to understand how college and university news operations might help to fill the growing gap in local journalism. These challenges are further intensified by the structural dominance of digital advertising markets. In 2021, Facebook and Google controlled approximately 80% of Canada’s digital advertising revenue (Winseck, 2022, p. 64). In response, the federal government enacted legislation mandating these companies pay for journalistic content, backed by the threat of daily fines of up to $15 million (Government of Canada, 2024). Following this, Meta announced in June 2023 it would begin removing all Canadian news content from its platforms, a policy that took full effect by August. In response, users began sharing screenshots of news articles to bypass the ban (Owen, 2024). Canadian users of Meta platforms continue to be blocked from sharing news on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. While Meta declined to negotiate or compensate news publishers for their material, Google agreed to contribute $100 million annually, with funds distributed to newspapers, broadcasters and digital media outlets (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, 2025). CBC is using this money to hire journalists in regions with limited news coverage (Deschamps, 2025). This includes Oshawa, Ont.

This is not the first time the Canadian government has affirmed the importance of free and independent media. Its official communications state that journalism is essential for democratic accountability and warn that legal and physical threats continue to undermine press freedom globally (Global Affairs Canada, 2023). In the aftermath of the 2025 federal election, the continued need for trusted, verifiable news at the local level remains critical, as misinformation on social media persists and democratic accountability depends on access to accurate information, a theme that will be explored in greater detail later in this article. Given the significant challenges facing local journalism, this literature review seeks to understand the potential of college and university news operations to help fill the widening local news gap, exploring how postsecondary initiatives like Voices in Durham (VID) can contribute to restoring access to credible local information, supporting community engagement, and strengthening democratic participation.

The relevance of this discussion is reflected in areas such as Durham Region, where the decline of local media has created conditions consistent with a news desert. Within this environment, initiatives such as VID and student-produced journalism at The Chronicle, published through Durham College’s journalism program, illustrate how postsecondary newsrooms can contribute to local information ecosystems in communities where traditional outlets have diminished. While not examined here as case studies, these examples reflect the types of academic news partnerships reflected in the literature that may help sustain access to reliable, locally focused reporting within a period of newsroom decline.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Civic engagement theory, democratic theory, the concept of journalism as a public good, and engaged journalism are used as interconnected frameworks to guide this literature review. Civic engagement theory emphasizes journalism’s role in cultivating informed citizenship through participation and access to credible information, and highlights the importance of dialogue and public engagement (Habermas, 1989, pp. 27, 82, 182; Hauptmann, 2005, p. 3; Lee et al., 2021, p.91). Democratic theory furthers the discussion by highlighting a bidirectional flow of information between citizens and government, warning that the decline of local journalism weakens accountability and trust (Aggarwal, 2025; Chiguano, 2024; Jangdal, 2019). Engaged journalism furthers these ideas by framing journalism as a collaborative practice that emphasizes participation between journalists and their communities (Ferrucci et al., 2020; Lawrence et al., 2017). This approach is particularly important because of the rise in misinformation and algorithmically curated content, which necessitates restoring trust and connection through engagement.

Together,  these  approaches  support  the position that academic–news partnerships can serve to rebuild local information ecosystems by producing credible, community-centred reporting, facilitating dialogue and fostering participation in areas where traditional news outlets have disappeared or declined.

METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE

This literature review analyzes sources using the terms “local news,” “news desert,” and “democracy.” Key terms were identified in articles and scholarly articles, statements from the Canadian government, an analysis from the Center for Community News (CCN) at the University of Vermont (UVM), the Local News Research Project, and an article comparing community-led journalism to the fan-owned Saskatchewan Roughriders   football team as a model for community-controlled news. A considerable effort has been made to prioritize Canadian sources, experts, and researchers who have studied the rise of news deserts, their impact on communities, and potential solutions. All sources are in English and the authors range from working journalists to academic institutions, including the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Nieman Lab and the Public Policy Forum’s (2017) Shattered Mirror report. Aside from the Local News Research Project, led by April Lindgren, there is limited investigation into mid-sized or suburban communities like those in Durham Region and virtually no research on the civic impact of student journalism in these contexts. Some of the literature draws on theoretical frameworks such as civic engagement theory, the role of journalism as a public good, and democratic theory, which together emphasize the importance of accessible, credible information to support informed participation in civic life. These conceptual lenses help frame the loss of local journalism not only as a media crisis but as a democratic one. This body of literature provides the foundation for the current paper’s central inquiry: to investigate whether student-run publications or community journalism projects like Voices in Durham can function not just as academic training grounds but as alternative civic news capable of restoring trust, credibility and access in Canadian news deserts.

GROWING GAPS

Canadian journalism education is undergoing a quiet but significant contraction. In recent years, numerous post-secondary institutions have suspended intake or discontinued their journalism programs, reflecting broader structural pressures facing both the media industry and higher education. Cambrian College suspended its journalism program as early as 2012 (Northern Ontario Business Staff, 2012). Loyalist announced program suspensions   with photojournalism having its last intake in 2023-2024, according to an article the Belleville Intelligencer (2023). Humber College has suspended admissions to its Bachelor of Journalism degree program due to low enrolment in 2022, yet other journalism-related programs such as the graduate certificate and diploma are not affected (David, 2022). Wilfrid Laurier University still lists its Honours BA Digital Media & Journalism program in the academic calendar but as of 2023-2024 suspended admissions (Wilfred Laurier University, 2025). Mohawk College has suspended intake (Hristova, 2023). In 2023 the University of Regina School of Journalism admissions were temporarily suspended for a review of operations, with the degree being reworked and then reopening in 2024 (University of Regina, 2024; The Carillon, 2022; Kurz, 2022). Sheridan College paused intake for its journalism program as part of sweeping cuts driven by a 30% enrollment decline and a $112-million budget shortfall (Bond, 2024). Centennial College paused its journalism offerings in response to reduced international student enrolment (Creech, 2025). Fanshawe College announced its one-year Journalism–TV and Digital News certificate program would not accept new students for the 2024-2025 academic year due to persistent low enrolment (Fry, 2024). In 2024, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) paused the Fall intake for its Radio, Television and Broadcast News stream in response to changing industry demands, however the institution continues to offer a full journalism diploma (Mertz, 2023). Durham College (DC), where the lead author of this article serves as program coordinator and the co-authors are alumni, is in the process of identifying overlaps between its journalism and broadcast programs and are amalgamating them into one program: Media Production. The new program’s Program Standard and vocational learning outcomes are oriented toward content creation rather than journalism, reflecting a shift away from traditional reporting competencies. Without a steady influx of trained journalists, gaps in local news coverage will continue to widen, limiting public access to essential information for democratic engagement. Moreover, if j-schools close, there will not be trained journalists to fill any roles.

Situated in Oshawa, Durham College operates in what many scholars and practitioners now identify as a “news desert.” While The Chronicle offers some degree of local news coverage, the broader media ecosystem in the wider region remains sparse compared to the concentration of journalism schools and media outlets in urban centres. The closest journalism schools are in Toronto, including Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), which offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Humber College and Seneca Polytechnic both offer two-year diploma programs while Centennial College in Scarborough offers a one-year graduate certificate in both sports journalism and contemporary journalism. Beyond the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the next closest colleges are Conestoga in Kitchener, over 150 kilometres away, Fanshawe in London, over 200 kilometres away, and Algonquin in Ottawa, approximately 400 kilometres away. This geographic gap highlights the distinct role Durham College has played in training journalists who can address the specific information needs of local communities underserved by mainstream media.

Understanding the geographic and demographic complexity of the region of Durham illustrates the importance of localized journalism and the unique position held by Durham College within broader media landscapes.

Durham Region’s news landscape

The Durham Region is the largest geographical jurisdiction across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), which includes over 20 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities such as the City of Toronto and the municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. The Region of Durham takes up 2,524 square kilometres and is roughly the size of Prince Edward Island. According to the most recent population census, the population of Durham Region, as of 2021, was 696,992 (Statistics Canada, 2022). The region includes eight municipalities: Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Scugog, Uxbridge and Whitby. In the 2021 population census, over 30%of the region’s entire population were considered visible minorities (Statistics Canada, 2022). Durham Region is projected to grow to 1.3 million people in 2051, from 753,090 in 2023, an increase of approximately 73% in less than three decades (Durham Region, 2025). As the population of Durham Region continues to grow and diversify, understanding the availability and accessibility of local news sources becomes increasingly important.

According to the Durham Region Immigration Portal (April, 2025), seven local news outlets serve the area: Brooklin Town Crier, The Brock Voice, Durham Region News, Global News Durham, The Oshawa Express, The Standard, and Uxbridge Cosmos. Additional media sources include local radio stations such as 680 News and CKDO, as well as regional and national television and online platforms, including CBC News Toronto, CP24, CTV News, The Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star, some of which provide occasional local coverage. Durham Region News, a division of Metroland Media Group, formerly published six weekly newspapers in the region: Ajax-Pickering News Advertiser, Oshawa This Week, Whitby This Week, Clarington This Week, The Uxbridge Times-Journal, and Port Perry Star (Durham Radio News, 2023). In addition to these mainstream outlets, Durham Region is also served by multicultural and multilingual media. CJRK-FM East FM 102.7, based in Scarborough, specifically targets South, East, and West Asian communities in Ajax and Pickering, broadcasting in at least nine languages to roughly 18 ethnic groups (Canadian Communications Foundation, n.d.). Toronto-based publications such as The Caribbean Camera are accessible in Durham, with the newspaper based in Ajax and serving Black and Caribbean communities across the Greater Toronto Area and Durham Region (Patte, 2024). Meanwhile, OMNI Television, Canada’s only dedicated multilingual-multicultural TV broadcaster, offers locally produced programming in more than 40 languages, including news in multiple ethnocultural languages (Rogers Communications, 2020, para.3). These outlets enrich Durham’s media landscape with culturally specific content that complements mainstream local news.

Within this media environment, it is important to consider the educational and institutional contexts that may contribute to local news production, particularly in Oshawa. The city is home to three post-secondary institutions: Durham College (DC), Ontario Tech University, and Trent University Durham. These institutions serve thousands of students across a range of disciplines. Among them, only DC has maintained a student-led news outlet and contributed to the local information ecosystem, though it is scheduled to end in 2027. The Chronicle has been connecting campus and community since 1973. It started as a newspaper and grew into an online publication with a regular weekly broadcast through the student radio station, Riot Radio, and has social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The outlet does not receive funding through donations, advertising or paid subscriptions but rather works as a student lab for the Durham College journalism program and is supported by the work of faculty in the program and the leadership and administration in the Faculty of Media, Art & Design. As with many programs across the country, the DC leadership team decided these initiatives were too costly to maintain. This paper examines whether the experiential learning project, Voices in Durham, or similar initiatives in news deserts, can provide a space to reimagine local news, particularly as the closure of DC’s journalism program and its media outlet, The Chronicle in Oshawa, Ont. reflects the broader shuttering of traditional and legacy outlets.

As traditional news sources continue to decline, communities like Oshawa face the effects of news deserts. In such contexts, the absence of reliable news creates a vacuum where misinformation and disinformation can flourish, undermining civic participation and weakening democratic processes. An informed electorate is fundamental to a healthy democracy; without trusted local journalism, that foundation is at risk. Community journalism plays a vital democratic role by serving as a crucial intermediary between citizens and their elected representatives (Chiguano, 2024). It functions as a watchdog, agenda-setter and civic educator, thereby enabling citizens to make informed decisions and engage in local democratic processes (Chiguano, 2024).

Misinformation and disinformation

According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, more than half of respondents (58%) say they remain concerned about their ability to tell true from false information online (Newman et al., 2025). A 2023 Statistics Canada survey similarly found that 43% of Canadians now find it harder than three years earlier to tell what is true or false online (Statistics Canada, 2023; Previl, 2023). According to The Dias, a public policy and leadership think tank at TMU, over half of Canadians (56%) say they often encounter news they suspect is false, while 37% later realize information they initially believed to be true was actually false (Andrey, 2023). Rates of exposure to false or misleading information are even higher among users of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram (Andrey, 2023). This exposure to misinformation has implications for public trust and democratic processes. Most recently, a 2025 Leger poll found 77% of Canadians believe misinformation influenced the federal election, with 19% stating it had a major impact (Morrison, 2025). These findings underscore the urgent need for credible, local journalism to support informed civic participation and to help Canadians navigate an increasingly complex digital information landscape. This concern is not isolated to Canada. Despite widespread privacy concerns, most Americans do not pay for news—often citing the abundance of free content available on social media platforms as a key reason (Tomasik & Lipka, 2025). This reliance on freely available content contributes to an information ecosystem increasingly vulnerable to misinformation. The World Economic Forum’s (2025) Global Risks Report identified misinformation and disinformation as one of the most significant short-term global risks, emphasizing how AI-generated fakes and declining trust in institutions threaten social stability and informed decisions-making. Added to this are the ways AI is reshaping how people find and consume information, with many accessing content directly through AI interfaces rather than visiting original publisher sources (Newman et al., 2025, p. 11). Despite these technological shifts, the public continues to place high value on human judgment, professional reporting and accountability in journalism (Newman et al., 2025, p. 11). These trends highlight a broader erosion of trust in information systems.

In the absence of strong local news sources, residents in smaller or underserved communities often turn to social media as their main source of information, leaving them more susceptible to misinformation. A 2020 study confirmed this growing reliance on digital platforms in news deserts, where credible local coverage is lacking (Ardia et al., 2020). Further supporting this trend, the Reuters Institute’s 2023 report notes misinformation spreads quickly on social media and reaches wider audiences. The report found individuals are more likely to question content encountered on these platforms than in traditional media, highlighting growing skepticism and the need for trusted local journalism to bridge the credibility gap (Newman et al., 2023). This challenge is exacerbated by the nature of user behaviour on social media platforms. Research has shown Facebook users share emotionally charged content without verifying its accuracy or considering its broader implications. Posts that evoke strong negative emotions, such as anger or contempt, are the most likely to be widely circulated, contributing to the spread of polarizing and offensive material (Vosoughi, et al., 2018). According to reporting on leaked internal Facebook documents, the social platform’s reshare feature amplifies the spread of misinformation (Hutchinson, 2021). Hutchinson (2021) cites the study saying that it found a substantial proportion of views of posts containing false information occur after the content has been reshared multiple times. Specifically, 38% of views of link posts with misinformation and 65% of views of photo posts occurred after at least two reshares, demonstrating how resharing drives the widespread dissemination of misleading content (Hutchinson, 2021). This highlights how the platform’s design can facilitate the rapid spread of false information, underscoring the urgent need for interventions to address misinformation amplification (Hutchinson, 2021). Design interventions such as integrated AI systems on search engines introduce new risks. Embedding AI capability into a platform such as Google may generate inaccurate or biased outputs carrying the potential to further amplify errors, but this time at scale (Bender et al., 2021).

Such dynamics weaken public trust in media and online information. This erosion of trust and the viral spread of misinformation online further compound the challenges communities face in the absence of reliable local journalism, underscoring the urgent need for alternative models of credible, community-rooted journalism that can help fill the gaps in news deserts like the region of Durham and support a more informed and engaged electorate. The loss of local news has had a negative impact on communities, leaving people to search for whatever information they can find (Hoffman, 2020). It has made them more likely to spread false information (Vosoughi et al., 2018), less likely to get involved in local government (Cornell, 2024), and more prone to believe misinformation they see online (Ardia et al., 2020). As a result, in Canada, trust in news has dropped to 40%, a decrease of 15 percentage points since 2016, according to Reuters (Brin & Charlton, 2023). While trust levels remain low, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, Canadians trust news brands rather than news in general (Newman et al., 2025).

Connection to democracy

In Canada, as of 2023, 80% of Canadians reported getting their news online from the internet, 67% from television, and 40% from radio (Statistics Canada, 2023). By 2024, television remained the most-used news source at 38%, followed by online platforms at 30%, with social media holding steady at 24% (Centre d’études sur les médias, 2024). According to the most recent Reuters Digital News Report (Newman et al., 2025), video-sharing and social media platforms, including YouTube and TikTok, have emerged as major sources of news. In the United States, trends are similar with 86% of adults now accessing news through digital devices at least occasionally, and 58% preferring digital platforms over television, radio, or print (Pew Research Center, 2024). Television remains a significant, though declining, source, as 63% still watch TV news at least sometimes (Pew Research Center, 2024). Despite the widespread adoption of digital news, local newspapers have been in steep decline, particularly in the United States. Since 2005, the U.S. has lost over one-third of its local newspapers, creating “news deserts” where communities have limited access to local journalism (Qin, 2025). Five key drivers contribute to this decline, including economic disparities, racial inequities and market forces that favour affluent communities. Newspapers tend to survive where there are wealthy subscribers and advertisers, leaving low-income and diverse communities underserved (Qin, 2024). This loss exacerbates inequality, as vulnerable populations face less journalistic scrutiny, which allows corruption and mismanagement to flourish (Qin, 2025). This shift toward digital news consumption has had significant implications for democratic engagement. As advertisers direct spending toward digital and social platforms where ads are more targeted and cost-efficient, traditional news organizations are struggling to remain financially viable (Newman et al., 2024). This economic imbalance undermines their capacity to deliver verified, in-depth journalism and to maintain robust newsroom operations (Newman et al., 2022). The resulting cuts in staff, reduced investigative reporting and closure of local news outlets contribute to the rise of so-called “news deserts,” where communities have little to no access to local journalism.

A recent response has been to build out payment models that engage readers directly (Newman et al., 2025). Yet subscription-based models face challenges with consistently low rates of Canadians paying for news, at about 14% of the population (Newman et al., 2025; Centre d’études sur les médias, 2024).

For community journalism, the challenge is making reporting, particularly news, not readily found on social platforms, compelling enough for local audiences to pay. Civic partnerships may help circumvent platform gatekeeping, which is increasingly influenced by AI algorithms, by producing content directly for communities, ensuring local news reaches audiences without relying solely on social media algorithms. More broadly, it could be argued the news landscape is increasingly divided between free journalism supported by foundations, public media funding, or broadcast licenses, and paid journalism in the form of online subscriptions, with declining advertising revenue further complicating sustainability. These trends have implications beyond business models, affecting the availability of local reporting and the quality of public discourse, both of which are essential for a functioning democracy.

For democracy to function within a parliamentary framework like Canada’s, the public must have access to a “bidirectional flow of information,” a system in which citizens are informed about political actions and politicians remain responsive to public opinion (Jangdal, 2019, p. 71). Jangdal (2019) cites previous research which emphasized insufficient media coverage poses a fundamental challenge to democratic functioning. According to Jangdal (2019), scholars such as Baker ( 2007), Firmstone and Coleman (2014), Gandour (2016), and Habermas (1989) have argued media centralization and the decline of local journalism threaten the conditions necessary for meaningful public dialogue and participation. Jangdal (2019) synthesizes arguments that posit a mutual flow of information is essential for voters to understand government policy, scrutinize public officials and engage meaningfully in political discourse (Jangdal, 2019). Jangdal’s (2019) study of Swedish hyperlocal media also shows many independent outlets serve cities, leaving rural areas underserved. These outlets emphasized their democratic mission, with one operator noting local decisions would have “passed right over the heads” of residents if their outlet hadn’t existed (p. 79).

All outlets in the studies cited by Jangdal (2019) stressed the democratic importance of their work, with some implementing democratic goals into their operations. In Canada, public broadcasters like CBC/Radio-Canada continue to play a vital role. On April 28, 2025, during Canada’s 45th federal election, over 7 million Canadians tuned into CBC’s Canada Votes: 2025 Election Special, marking the broadcaster’s highest day of engagement. The program was streamed over 5.2 million times and CBC’s digital platforms attracted more than 8 million visitors, with video views increasing by 127% compared to the 2021 federal election (CBC Media Centre, 2025).

This underscores a vital point: for democracy to thrive, citizens must actively engage with news, participate in political processes, and vote (Habermas, 1989). As noted by Jangdal (2019), democracy also relies on a system for debate and “bidirectional information supply” (p. 71). People living in news deserts are less likely to be involved in their communities or take part in local elections (Salahi & Smith, 2022). At the same time, many traditional news organizations are struggling to survive. Today, most advertisers prefer social media platforms because they offer cheaper and more targeted advertising. A study by News Media Canada found that advertising revenue for community newspapers in Canada dropped by more than half over nine years, falling from $1.17 billion in 2010 to about $401 million in 2021 (Bell, 2023). This steep decline in revenue has put many local papers at risk, contributing to closures and reduced coverage.

The migration of advertising to digital platforms has undermined the financial foundation of news organizations, leading to newsroom layoffs and less local news coverage. This threatens the role of journalism in supporting an informed citizenry and a healthy democracy (Public Policy Forum, 2017). News Media Canada (2020) describes this problem as a “market failure,” meaning the news industry can no longer meet the public’s needs (News Media Canada, 2020, p. 4). When local journalism disappears, communities lose a vital tool for holding powerful institutions accountable and making informed choices (News Media Canada, 2020).

New models are addressing this market failure by reimagining local journalism as community-centred service rather than a commercial product. Initiatives like The Green Line focus on underserved audiences, producing explainers, features, events, and crowdsourced solutions that connect residents to practical information and resources (Engaged Journalism Conference, 2025). By combining engagement journalism with civic partnerships, these models foster trust, strengthen community knowledge, and help fill gaps in coverage, particularly in communities underserved by traditional news outlets (Engaged Journalism Conference, 2025).

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ 2025 News Deprivation analysis (Macdonald & Macdonald, 2025) and the Local News Map show that many Ontario communities have low levels of local coverage. Oshawa is among communities facing limited local-news resources (Macdonald & Macdonald, 2025). In 2025, CBC hired two reporters in Oshawa as part of a national strategy to strengthen journalism in underserved areas (CBC Media Centre, 2025). As private newsrooms continue to shrink, public broadcasters like CBC have become increasingly important in filling the local news gap. The decline of local journalism poses a serious threat to democratic participation, limiting access to timely civic information and reducing opportunities for accountability and engagement.

For more than 50 years, The Chronicle served as a trusted voice on the DC campus and in the wider community. The Chronicle and Durham Region were established the same year, developing in parallel with the growth of the community. The closure of the campus paper marks the end of an era and reflects a broader and nationwide trend: across Canada, journalism programs and campus papers are closing, highlighting the fragility of local news and the challenges faced by underserved communities. Academic institutions have a unique opportunity to address these gaps, leveraging their students, faculty and resources to support local journalism and foster academic-news partnerships. The Chronicle once exemplified this potential.

Moving forward, sustaining local news will require not only public investment and structural support but also innovative strategies, including civic partnerships that mitigate AI-driven platform gatekeeping, ensuring local news reaches audiences effectively. These challenges underscore the need for local newspapers to not only survive but evolve, adapting to economic pressures, digital disruption, and changing audience habits, with academic institutions playing a proactive, ongoing role in this evolution.

Survival of local newspapers

Research from the Public Policy Forum (PPF) shows both the quantity and quality of civic reporting have dropped as newsrooms shrink and newspapers close. Between 2008 and 2017, the number of newspaper articles about civic affairs in Canadian communities fell by nearly half and coverage of democratic institutions declined by more than one-third (Public Policy Forum, 2018; Public Policy Forum, 2022). This ongoing decline has particularly affected smaller communities (Public Policy Forum, 2018; Public Policy Forum, 2022). Consolidation, when large organizations buy local outlets, further erodes community-focused journalism, as corporate ownership often reduces the stake of local residents in news coverage (Abernathy, 2022; Abernathy & Stonebely, 2023). Attempts to preserve local operations have mixed results. For example, Kamloops This Week tried to save its news operation by having staff purchase the paper and form The Phoenix, which failed to launch after being unable to meet sales staff salary expectations, according to its prospective publisher (Kaisar, 2024; Munro, 2023). Similarly, closures like the Manitoba-based Southeast Journal, after a 35-year run, were driven by rising costs and decline in advertising revenue (Hagey et al., 2019; Mlinarevic, 2024). Large newspapers have sometimes survived by increasing the price of their print editions but smaller local papers cannot raise prices without losing readers (Abernathy, 2022; Abernathy & Stonebely, 2023). For independent newspapers, survival depends on finding new sources of revenue to replace what was once generated from print advertising and subscriptions (Abernathy, 2018). Even a loyal readership, as seen with outlets like The Logic Canada, is insufficient if advertising revenue dries up, highlighting the need for diverse business models (Engaged Journalism Conference, 2025). Tracking the full scope of such closures can be challenging due to inconsistencies between the data published by News Media Canada and the Local News Map, which measure different phenomena and are not directly comparable (Lindgren & Wong, 2022).

In  response  to  the  decline  of  local  news, the federal government introduced the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) in 2019, a $50 million, five-year program supporting civic journalism in underserved areas (Canadian Heritage, 2024). Administered by seven independent non-profit organizations to preserve editorial independence, the LJI has funded over 400 journalist positions at nearly 300 media outlets, serving approximately 1,400 communities across the country (News Media Canada, 2024). The initiative encourages collaborative and open-access models: funded content can be shared under a Creative Commons license, allowing local stories to be republished widely and increasing their impact (Basu, 2024). However, the LJI is not without criticism. Some media experts question the fairness and efficiency of the funding model, raising concerns over large legacy outlets such as Postmedia and The Toronto Star receiving a disproportionate share of LJI funding (Scire, 2020), while smaller, more innovative local outlets struggle to qualify. Many have called for the LJI to prioritize applications that show innovation and that include plans for sustaining jobs after the grant period ends (Scire, 2020). Another concern is the heavy workload expected of LJI-funded reporters, who are often required to produce five to seven stories a week. This intense pace can compromise the depth and quality of reporting, especially when journalists are working in resource-constrained or complex community contexts (Scire, 2020).

In addition to government-supported initiatives, emerging digital outlets illustrate alternative models. The Logic, a subscription-based investigative platform, demonstrates independent journalism can thrive without relying on advertising by combining a subscription model with government grants, corporate partnerships, and investment (The Logic, 2024). In contrast, The Green Line represents a community-driven embedded model, leveraging partnerships with local organizations and academic institutions to deliver freely accessible journalism tailored to underserved communities (Engaged Journalism Conference, 2025). Together, these examples highlight the diversity of strategies for maintaining independent and civic-focused journalism, ranging from reader-funded to collaborative, community-integrated approaches.

Academic institutions also play a growing role in this ecosystem. A national survey of journalism faculty at 22 English-language Canadian colleges and universities found strong interest in expanding student contributions to local news (Haney & Paskey, 2020). Challenges persist, including limited funding, staffing constraints, short student tenures, and balancing education with the production of professional-grade journalism are identified as obstacles (Haney & Paskey, 2020; see also McLean, 2023). Yet successful collaborations are emerging. In 2022, three of the four nominees for the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Student Award of Excellence were the result of editorial partnerships between student newsrooms and professional outlets, including The Globe and Mail, Maisonneuve and The Tyee (McLean, 2023). Previous winners include a 2021 collaboration between the University of British Columbia and Ricochet, and a 2012 co-publication with The Toronto Star (McLean, 2023).

These examples highlight the potential of student-professional partnerships in producing high-quality journalism while training future reporters. Despite their promise, there remains no standardized framework to guide these collaborations, yet McLean (2023) lists tools that can help educators partner with media organizations. Both McLean and Haney and Paskey (2020) point to a rethinking of journalism education. For McLean (2023), this means collaboration with media outlets as a response to the economic, technological, and structural challenges facing the industry while Haney and Paskey (2020) see the possibility for journalism educators to use program-based publications to combat declining news coverage, though they cite numerous challenges, such as restricted resources, institutional constraints, and the demands of teaching. If managed effectively, campus-based journalism can become a viable solution for addressing local news poverty, particularly in under-covered areas like Durham Region. By combining professional mentorship with student energy and community-focused reporting, journalism programs can serve dual purposes: training the next generation of reporters and helping to fill local news gaps.

Expanding support for such civic partnerships aligns closely with national efforts to sustain local journalism. Programs like the LJI illustrate how policy and practice can intersect to strengthen local news ecosystems by funding reporting in underserved areas, encouraging collaborations. The LJI remains one of the most significant policy tools for addressing Canada’s growing news deserts. With  thoughtful  reform,  particularly  around funding accessibility, innovation incentives and support for collaborative and academic models, it has the potential to drive meaningful change in Canada’s local news ecosystem. Such reforms would also strengthen campus-based journalism initiatives.

Examples of academic-news partnerships

As previously noted, Haney & Paskey’s (2020) national study of journalism faculty across 22 English-language universities, colleges, and technical institutes found many academic programs are actively embedded within dynamic local news ecosystems. Student journalists routinely produce stories on topics such as Indigenous issues, immigration, mental health, and local governance coverage, frequently co-published with established news organizations or disseminated through partnerships like the former Institute for Investigative Journalism, now called the Institute for Inclusive, Investigative, and Innovative Journalism (I3J). These efforts not only provide essential local reporting in areas facing “news poverty,” but also offer students practical experience and communities much-needed information (Haney & Paskey, 2020, p. 590). Struggling local newspapers start partnerships with local colleges and work to breathe life into these papers, with the added goal of bridging the gap with local coverage (Salahi & Smith, 2022, para. 4). Three professors at separate journalism schools in the U.S. examined three online startups out of journalism schools: The Scope, The Eudora Times and The Triangle Tribune (Finneman et al., 2022). Through interviews with key journalists, the authors found these initiatives were driven by a desire to serve communities overlooked by traditional media (Finneman et al., 2022). While many student journalists were initially unaware of the concept of “news deserts,” their reporting became a vital source of local information (Finneman et al., 2022, p. 349). One notable example is the partnership between the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and The Oglethorpe Echo. The partnership prevented the paper from closing in 2021 as students contributed (Bright 2022) and rotated “through roles — reporting, visuals editing, as well as digital” (Allen, 2021, para. 15). The partnership was a gateway for students to go out into their community to find out what impacts their community and bring that into a classroom akin to a newsroom. The partnership is a proven solution to bridging gaps in local news and rejuvenating local news outlets, even saving them in some cases. However, in the case of The Oglethorpe Echo, the time faculty members are in school isn’t equal to the amount of time needed to carry on a weekly newspaper. Faculty felt pressure to “deliver professional-level multimedia journalism out of classrooms” and this can lead to “the same problems that editors at local newsrooms report, such as burnout, high workloads, and low pay” (Bright, 2022, p. 78-79). There are, however, possible solutions, such as internships through the summer and Christmas breaks (Holmes, 2022).

Another notable example is The Signal, the student publication at the University of King’s College in Halifax. Regularly covering municipal elections, city council meetings and municipal debates, student coverage reinforces journalism’s watchdog role and expanding civic awareness (Bowes, 2025; Choudhary, 2021; The Signal & NSCC Staff, 2024). In 2017, journalism students at the University of King’s College created a multimedia, data-driven package marking the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. The work was later picked up by Global News, which incorporated the students’ data into its own coverage, resulting in one of its most-viewed Halifax stories of the year (University of King’s College, 2018). This illustrates how student journalism can contribute to mainstream media, enriching public understanding while offering students valuable professional experience. Another example is the Climate Disaster Project (CDP), a SSHRC-funded journalism partnership, coordinated at the University of Victoria. With support from philanthropist Wayne C. Crookes, in 2021 the CDP united journalism schools and media organizations across Canada. Climate Disaster Project (n.d.) states the collaboration is now international in scope yet remains rooted in producing high-impact, award-winning local journalism that documents how climate change affects individuals and communities. Similarly, collaborative, community-centred initiatives have emerged in Chicago; the nonprofit City Bureau supports neighbourhood news coverage by training journalists from underrepresented communities, pairing them with experienced reporters, students, and early-career journalists (Spinelle, 2021). Within the first three years, between 2016 and 2019, the initiative trained more than 80 journalists and produced over 110 stories, many of which have been published by both local and national outlets (Blau, 2019.) In addition to newsroom training, City Bureau’s Documenters program pays residents to attend and report on public meetings, while weekly public newsrooms invite community input and promote transparency. This approach has helped rebuild trust in local media and represents a potential model for sustaining journalism at the grassroots level (Blau, 2019). Building on this model, The Green Line has launched Documenters Canada, a pilot project adapted to the Canadian context. The program focuses on training community members in Alexandra Park, Kensington Market, and Chinatown to report on municipal meetings relevant to their neighbourhoods. Content produced by participants is shared through a weekly newsletter and supported by partnerships with local organizations (The Green Line, 2025).

Building on the model of community-engaged journalism, collaborative initiatives between educational institutions and community news outlets have emerged as strategies to support local journalism and rebuild the industry. One example is the partnership between DC’s journalism program and Orono Weekly Times, a community newspaper with an 89-year history in Orono, Ont. Julie Cashin-Oster, a DC alumna from the 1980s and current owner of Orono Weekly Times, joined the Voices in Durham (VID) project as a media partner in 2024. This partnership enabled five first-year journalism students to publish their initial stories in Orono Weekly Times, and led to the hiring of two second-year students as interns. Over the past five years, VID has facilitated meaningful engagement between community members and student journalists through its annual Community Listening event. These initiatives have offered students hands-on experience in reporting on the diverse and evolving region of Durham while also fostering leadership development, public speaking skills and the ability to identify and report on underrepresented narratives within the local media landscape. The VID project exemplifies the importance of amplifying voices and stories that are often overlooked in mainstream news coverage. These opportunities underscore the unique role that DC’s journalism program plays within its regional context by focusing on the region’s key priority issues, as outlined in the Region of Durham’s Community Safety and WellBeing Plan.

The scale and success of such collaborations are growing. The Center for Cooperative Media (2024) has documented many active partnerships between campus and professional newsrooms across North America. These partnerships range from joint investigative projects to ongoing content-sharing agreements, and are especially prevalent in efforts to cover underserved or rural communities. Beyond content creation, student journalism also fosters civic engagement. The Knight Foundation (2019) found that young adults who engage with news media are more likely to make informed decisions about policies and voting. The report highlights that young people view news media as central to democracy and civic life, often using news coverage to guide their participation in public affairs (Knight Foundation, 2019). This suggests that student journalism, by providing relevant and accessible information, can help inform and mobilize communities, ultimately supporting greater civic engagement and participation (Knight Foundation, 2019). From a professional development standpoint, student journalists benefit immensely. The Intercept’s Rising Student Voices initiative, for example, saw University of North Carolina students uncover stories and offer perspectives that seasoned reporters often miss (Aggarwal, 2025). These collaborations immerse students in the realities of journalism research, interviewing, editing, and fact-checking, while also confronting the ethical challenges of real-time reporting (Aggarwal, 2025). The resulting work has been powerful, with students breaking stories on underreported issues such as youth political activism and campus protests.

Importantly, these partnerships not only amplify diverse voices but also empower students to pursue their work beyond the classroom. They serve as a meaningful investment in the future of journalism and democratic engagement (Aggarwal, 2025). A leading example is the University of Vermont’s Community News Service, where student reporters, supervised by faculty, produced more than 11,000 stories in one year, showing both the scale and sustainability of this model (Caro, 2025). Richard Watts, founder of the Center for Community News (CCN), describes these partnerships as a win-win situation: students gain professional experience and bylines, universities fulfill their public mission and communities gain access to local coverage (Caro, 2025). Further emphasizing the potential of student journalism, CCN at the University of Vermont conducted a national study highlighting the significant overlap between public media organizations and post-secondary institutions. The study found that 88% of public media organizations provide opportunities for college students to help cover their communities, reaching 91% of the U.S. population (Finn, 2025). Notably, 59% offer intensive, ongoing roles for student journalists and 13% function as “teaching hospitals” where journalism education is central to the station’s mission (Finn, 2025, p. 2). With half of all public media stations licensed to colleges or universities, the study reveals not only the scale of student involvement but also the untapped potential for deeper collaborations (Finn, 2025).

Over 60% of journalism graduates go on to work in local or regional newsrooms, highlighting the essential contribution of student media to the future of journalism (Willnat et al., 2022). Despite these benefits, significant challenges persist. Student journalists are often unpaid for their work, raising concerns about equity and access, particularly for students from marginalized backgrounds (Bainbridge, 2024). Faculty and program leaders report that resource limitations such as funding, staffing and access to technology can restrict the scale and sustainability of student journalism initiatives (Haney & Paskey, 2020). Maintaining editorial independence and consistent quality also presents ongoing challenges, particularly when student work is published in partnership with external newsrooms (Haney & Paskey, 2020). To maximize the impact of student media, continued advocacy is needed to ensure students are appropriately acknowledged and, where possible, compensated for their contributions. Addressing these challenges will help academic and professional newsrooms build more effective and equitable collaborations, ultimately strengthening the local news ecosystem.

CONCLUSION

The erosion of local journalism in Canada is not an emerging concern, it is an urgent, expanding crisis. News deserts are a documented reality. Each newsroom closure does more than eliminate headlines, it severs a community’s access to timely, reliable information, diminishes opportunities for civic participation, and weakens the shared social fabric that binds local populations together. As demonstrated throughout this literature review, the consequences of this collapse are measurable and severe: lower voter turnout, weakened trust in public institutions, and reduced civic engagement. Yet within this crisis lies a compelling opportunity to reimagine the intersection of journalism education and local news production. The purpose of this literature review was to examine the root causes behind the decline of local news, evaluate existing responses, and explore innovative strategies for revitalizing journalism at the community level. What emerges clearly is that academic journalism programs cannot and should not replace professional newsrooms, but they are an underutilized asset with the potential to help revitalize community-based journalism. A national survey conducted by Sally Haney and Janice Paskey underscores this point. They found that 96% of Canadian journalism programs expressed a moderate to high commitment to covering local news, with students frequently reporting on city hall, civic issues, courts, policing, sports and justice (Haney & Paskey, 2020). Furthermore, 84% of these programs indicated that students regularly produced journalistic profiles of local individuals (Haney & Paskey, 2020). Nearly half reported that student work was always shared with a public audience, usually through co-publication with professional outlets or partnerships like the Institute for Investigative Journalism (Haney & Paskey, 2020). These findings reveal both the capacity and willingness of journalism programs to engage with community issues in meaningful ways but calls for continued research to include best practices (Haney & Paskey, 2020).

This research builds directly on that foundation and calls for a template for sustainable, community-focused journalism that bridges the divide between journalism education and professional practice. Local outlets across the country, many of which operate with minimal staff and limited budgets, stand to gain from the fresh perspectives, energy, and community engagement that student journalism can bring. Postsecondary newspapers not formally linked to journalism programs can also contribute to this landscape, offering platforms for student reporting and community engagement. In turn, students would benefit from more immersive, consequential reporting experiences rooted in the places where they live and study. Importantly, this aligns with broader calls in the literature for collaborative approaches to revitalizing local news. As Haney

As Haney and Paskey (2020) and others note, the combined efforts of Canadian journalism programs represent a powerful resource that should be recognized and strategically utilized. However, it’s also important to recognize that many journalism programs across Canada have been paused or shuttered, raising concerns about the long-term capacity of this approach. At a time when many journalism programs are experiencing declining enrollment or facing closure, community-engaged initiatives could offer new relevance and appeal, showing that journalism still matters, both as a career path and as a vital part of civic life.

At the same time, it is important to acknowledge the institutional and financial contexts of postsecondary journalism remain underexplored. Malenfant (2025) highlights that student media face challenges related to campus policies, limited resources, and exposure to legal risks, all of which can affect editorial independence and reporting experiences. Further study is needed to understand how funding models, institutional supports, and legal frameworks influence both the sustainability of student outlets and their capacity to contribute meaningfully to local communities. As illustrated by the University of Vermont example, student journalism has significant potential to expand local reporting capacity and strengthen collaborations between post-secondary institutions and community media.

The collapse of local news is undeniable but so is the growing promise of academic-news partnerships to rebuild it. By intentionally aligning journalism education with community needs, these collaborations can serve a dual purpose: equipping students with meaningful, hands-on experience while ensuring communities continue to receive timely, reliable information. Now is the moment to invest in this potential before more communities fall silent. This is not just an educational imperative; it is a civic one. Without such investment, the erosion of local news will continue unchecked, leaving communities without the stories, scrutiny, shared knowledge and sense of shared connection that hold the fabric of both democracy and community together. Academic-news partnerships are not a replacement for professional journalism, but they are a crucial complement, capable of amplifying local voices, strengthening civic engagement and preserving the public’s right to know.

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Teresa Goff is a professor and program coordinator in Durham College’s Journalism–Mass Media program. She developed a Social Impact Dashboard Prototype and has worked on projects like Voices in Durham, focusing on connecting students with community stories. Her work covers journalism education, digital media, and community storytelling. She also researches topics like immersive journalism and AI in media, exploring how technology affects storytelling and community engagement.

Izza Adil is an emerging journalist and multimedia storyteller dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices and inspiring social change. She has covered sustainability, community empowerment, cultural narratives and diverse global perspectives. Her work includes co-producing Voices in Durham, writing features and op-eds, and interviewing academics, activists, and industry leaders. As well, she works at CBC as an associate producer.

Sunmeet Kour is a Durham College alumna and dedicated journalist passionate about storytelling and amplifying community voices. During her internship at the Orono Weekly Times, she produced Fields of Clarington, a six-part podcast series exploring the roots, resilience, and reinvention of local agriculture. She has created written, audio, and visual stories that highlight the people and issues shaping her community, and she also served as a co-producer on the Voices in Durham project.

Gage Patte is a graduate of Durham College’s journalism program and a former student producer with Voices in Durham. He currently works as a communications assistant at Ontario Tech University. He was recognized with an Honourable Mention in Feature Writing at the 2024 OCNA Awards for his piece, The evolving landscape of cancer screening for

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