As local newspapers close down and community news coverage dries up, research has shown that public participation and trust in democracy declines too. That’s not new. What is new is what one country has decided to do about it.
The Australian government recently passed a law requiring Facebook and Google to share ad revenue with media outlets whose content they aggregate. The idea is to stop social media giants from siphoning off income that should go to support actual news coverage. But the approach is drawing criticism that the deal is skewed in favor of large national media organizations, and does little to support local press. Courtesy The Conversation.