OPINION (AN COLÚN): The vital role of local newspapers in democracies

ONE of the great things about YouTube is it can put you in touch with some of the leading thinkers in the world today. One of these is Timothy Snyder, a Yale professor, who is a leading commentator about the Ukraine War. A few days ago he delivered an excellent lecture in The University Club of New York during which he gave a stark warning about the rise of autocracy and the diminishment of democracy in the world.
“The last twenty years,” he said, “have been an unfortunate period where we have witnessed, internationally, the decline of democracy.” He said there has been a quantitative decline in the number of democracies around the world, and the democracies which we do have are generally worse than they were 20 years ago. This has been the overall trend. “One of the reasons,” he continued, “why Ukraine is so important and worthy of our attention is that it is a rare example of a country where, in the last 20 years things have gotten better; they've been bucking the trend.” Since the 1990s the story in Ukraine, in general, has been a state moving towards less oligarchy and more rule of law; “and that's a trajectory which is very valuable. One of the things we lose if we lose Ukraine is a huge amount of morale, because one wants to think that we could have countries which get more democratic. There are precious few countries getting more democratic nowadays. In polls the Ukrainians say the two top priorities which they are fighting for are Borders, and Democracy.” He said that if the Ukrainians, who are taking big risks for democracy, fail, “then who's going to take small risks for democracy? And if no one is going to take small risks for democracy then democracy is going to have a really hard time in the next 20 years.”
Dubious nationalist sentiments are on the rise, along with increasing levels of autocracy, restrictions on free speech and democratic “backsliding”. “Flawed” democracies and “Hybrid” regimes are becoming more commonplace. Democracies mediate competing interests, forming them into political parties which play by “the rules of the game,” producing a largely equitable system for political organisation. The backsliding trend began in 2006, with around three-quarters of all democratic countries undergoing degrees of democratic deterioration since then. Now, fewer people live in democracies, and most established democracies have veered towards more authoritarian responses. Only 24 countries are “full democracies,” with just eight percent of the world’s population. Including “flawed democracies,” that number increases to 72. Such “flawed democracies” includes the United States, Poland, South Africa, and Botswana. People in 95 countries live under “hybrid” or authoritarian regimes.
The healthier a democracy is, the greater the steps it will take to improve the wellbeing of all its people. The less healthy it becomes, the more backsliding which occurs, then the detachment between the ruling elite and the majority becomes ever wider. The social contract becomes fractured and States work less and less for the common good. Here in Ireland we have seen this happen in the cases of the Housing and Cost of Living Crises. In the wake of the fallout from the financial crash of 2008 the government's instinct has been to further privatise the housing industry which has led to the disastrous consequences we are witnessing today.
I find it valuable talking to volunteers in charities such as St Vincent de Paul, because you get a view into a world behind the glossy facade and the spin often foisted on us. St Vincent de Paul provides assistance towards rents which it says are “astronomical” and are beyond the reach of a lot of people. St Vincent de Paul says that food costs have been extremely difficult for the last number of years which has led to mothers depriving themselves of food and heat at home while their children are at school. The high cost of running a car is very hard for many people. Basic items such as clothing, electrical appliances, hardware goods, burn a financial hole in one's pocket. In so many cases St Vincent de Paul is stepping in with invaluable help, cases where the government's failure to properly govern is plain for all to see.
Professor Snyder argues that the backsliding can be linked to the rise of new media. “It is always the case that new media causes terrible disruptions. The media which we often think of as reasonable and levelheaded, such as the book or the newspaper took decades or centuries to create. The printing press, after its invention was linked to 150 years of religious war.” New media always takes time to be hammered into a shape which is conducive to the better interests of society. “At the moment,” he continued, “we are overvaluing the digital and social media worlds, and many of us are undervaluing things such as books, newspapers, the arts and humanities.” We are overvaluing the machine world and undervaluing the spiritual, the higher mental realm. This attitude has been disastrous and is linked to a lot of our neuroses. The Professor says the world needs more local media reporting. “We are being taught to undervalue reporting. However, we have to be able to say, as humans, that these invaluable human labours – such as parenting, art, teaching, and local reporting have to be valued; and valued not just morally but financially. We have to ensure that local reporting is a job which is well paid into the future. We have to be able to say, truth matters, that we want to seek the truth. If we don't have that ethical wind at our backs, if we are not willing to say that we care about facts and truth, then we are going to have a hard time keeping democracy going.
“If media is going to work in the 21st century it has to work locally. If there is going to be a Press, a system of newspapers, which are very importantly linked with people's lives, right from when they are very young, then we have to get our valuation system right. Everyone grows up in a place and it's very important that in that place there is a newspaper; that there are local reporters who report on the little details of life. This is so extraordinarily important, because if people don't have local newspapers, if they don't understand that reporters are people like them then they distrust what they call 'the media' their entire lives. If there is no connection to the local then people immediately drift to the national, or the international, or to the realm of conspiracy. Many of the counties of the United States are a news desert; many of the counties of the United States have no newspapers reporting proper news. And when you lose that you feel the vacuum, you feel the polarisation that arises when people go upward into levels of things where they don't really know what they are talking about and where they are drawn into opposing camps.”
Local newspapers, such a vital part of local democracy, such an important function of democracies, are under pressure, to varying degrees, throughout the West. In Ireland they are, thankfully, in a considerably healthier condition than in the United States, but they have nonetheless experienced a worrying decline. The future is uncertain and two possible branches are before us. One of them will lead to greater pluralism and a more compassionate society; the other will lead to greater degeneration and corruption.