News

As trust in media continues to fracture across political and generational lines at the national level, journalists, faculty, and students gathered at St. Olaf College this spring to examine polarization, press freedom, and the future of local journalism. 

“When we first started talking about this entire conference, the issue of press freedom was front and center,” said St. Olaf Professor of Political Science Chris Chapp, the Morrison Family Director of the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community. “It is not difficult to find questions about press freedom in the headlines today — from issues of censorship, to access, licensing, ownership, and threats.” 

Hosted by the Buntrock Institute for Freedom and Community on May 1-2, the conference, titled Polarization and the Changing Media Landscape, featured six panels with journalists, editors, scholars, photojournalists, and media executives discussing the causes of political division, declining trust in institutions, and the rapidly changing news industry. The event was supported in part by the Ruth Michelsen McGaffey Fund.

Among the panelists were several St. Olaf alumni, including Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Gretchen Morgenson ‘76, Minnesota Public Radio visual journalist Ben Hovland ‘11, and Punchbowl News founder and CEO Anna Palmer ‘04. 

In the opening panel, Press Freedom in a Polarized Age, Morgenson reflected on her decades-long career in journalism, which has included work at Vogue Magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and her current role as an NBC News financial reporter. Morgenson stressed that the profession has both evolved and remained consistent in its core values. 

“Now what I call myself is an accountability journalist — I am speaking truth to power,” Morgenson said. “I am not a person who just wants access to get the information, I’m really going to try to get at the truth. It has never been harder for people in these shoes to do our jobs. We’re being basically muzzled in an array of ways, but young people are doing the work to keep journalism alive.”

Though panel topics would range from investigative journalism and data analytics to podcasting and photojournalism, one theme repeatedly surfaced throughout the conference: the importance of strong local journalism. 

Keynote speaker Jamie Druckman, the Martin Brewer Anderson Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester, argued that rebuilding trust in political institutions may depend in part on reinvesting in local communities and news. 

“The solution I think we should be talking about most is the investment in local institutions,” Druckman explained. “One of the things that I’ve not mentioned is that what has also happened in American politics over the last 50 years is a nationalization of politics. When we think about local politics, we now go right to the national stage. That’s especially problematic when you already have strong local institutions, because then you’re bringing people in who share local concerns, and it doesn’t matter what their stances are on national politics. If there’s local concerns that can be brought to the public’s attention, then I think it really could temper national divides.” 

Several speakers pointed to the decline of local journalism as one factor fueling distrust and polarization. Palmer noted that many rural communities have become a “news desert” with little to no local news coverage. As a result, residents come to rely on national coverage that focuses primarily on political extremes, further contributing to mistrust and division.

“Distrust in these institutions is a societal issue writ large,” she said. “What we need to do is to make ourselves indispensable — telling true news that people can rely on.”

A panel titled Telling the Story: Visual, Documentary, and Data Journalism, similarly emphasized the importance of local coverage. Minneapolis-based photojournalist Hovland described how he gravitated toward the medium as a way to help people while documenting the truth. He discussed tense political moments where larger, national media organizations rushed to the scene to get a quote or soundbyte from people, without knowing anything about the people involved, the situation, or Minnesota itself. He emphasizes how local news providers are able to provide more nuanced and accurate information, because they are deeply rooted in and attuned to the community they reside in.

“I remain deeply appreciative of the work that our national colleagues do,” Hovland said. “But I also am skeptical and am a huge supporter of local news organizations that are doing more nuanced work in the community and on the ground.”

Sean McPherson, host of City Cast Twin Cities, emphasized the importance of transparency in journalism and building trust directly with audiences.

“Readers and listeners have to know and be able to trust that the information shared by us will be parsed,” he said. “I also think I’ve learned that being honest to audiences about myself and my own biases has helped build a relationship with audiences too.”

Mukhtar Ibrahim, CEO of Mukhtar Communications, echoed similar concerns about public trust and misinformation. 

“The average person isn’t lacking news. What they are missing is verifiable, trusted, local news.” 

Later panels examined the growing “atomization” of media consumption and the fragmentation of shared public understanding. 

“News has become so atomized,” Matt DeLong, an audience editor for the Minnesota Star Tribune, said. “Everybody is getting their news from different sources. There used to be an agreed-upon reality, but now the audience can just go to someone else, so we have to meet the audience where they’re at.” 

Dan Myers, an associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, shared a similar sentiment as to where some of these divides stem from. 

“The generational divide between the way different age groups consume media is mind-blowing,” he said. “The atomization of the media is incredible, and is only getting more so as time goes on.”

Still, many speakers expressed optimism about the future of journalism, particularly through independent and community-centered reporting models. 

Scott Libin, a senior fellow at the Hubbard School of Journalism at the University of Minnesota, argued that emerging forms of independent journalism may help cut through political noise and audience fragmentation.  

“The pendulum of public interest and news sources has swung so far past what it used to be,” he said. “[News companies] are bending over backwards to meet what the public is interested in, but independent journalism, though in its early stages, shows promise to cut through the noise and politics of news.” 

RonNell Andersen Jones, the University Distinguished Professor and Teitelbaum Chair in Law at the University of Utah, agreed.

“Young people, like the ones in the audience, give me hope,” Jones said. “These new models and independent journalists are helping restructure news, and are making people more aware of the larger political systems that control it.” 

Those interested in hearing more about journalism and polarization can view Druckman’s keynote address on-demand.