“We have to think instead of the city as a process of economic development, as a generator of the middle class, and as the primary location for the exercise of robust self-government.” — Richard Schragger

I’ve recently given a few speeches around Northeast Michigan about the future of journalism and democracy.

In the speeches, I talked about the research finding that, when towns lose their newspapers, voter participation, local charitable giving, and engagement with civic groups and local government goes down, while government corruption and government spending goes up.

In short, without a watchdog providing independent, fact-checked information about the goings-on of local government and the needs of the community, people tend to disengage.

And a disengaged populace is bad for democracy because disengaged people do not provide the help that their neighbors need to thrive and they do not pay enough attention to government to stop it from giving in to its worst impulses.

Now, advocacy group America’s Newspapers has come out with a new poll providing further evidence of the importance of newspapers to democracy. The survey of 5,000 Americans done in partnership with the firm Coda Ventures found:

∫ 79% of newspaper readers vote in national or state elections, versus 61% of non-readers,

∫ 66% of newspaper readers vote nearly every time in local elections, versus 40% of non-readers,

∫ 64% of Americans rely on newspapers when making voting decisions,

∫ 55% of Americans name newspapers as one of their sources of information about local government; the next-closest was local TV, which came in at 36%, followed by social media at 32%,

∫ and eight out of 10 American adults read print or digital newspapers every month.

The survey results don’t surprise me.

In too many communities around this country, newspapers are the only source of independent, fact-checked information about local government, local charitable groups and service clubs, and local needs.

Northeast Michigan has been blessed to have multiple local newspapers, a local TV station, and active newsgatherers at local radio stations. What one outlet misses, another likely picks up, and we all compete with one another to have the most, best, and fastest information for our audiences. That competitive drive leads to better output from all of us.

I think newspapers do it best. We have the training and the space to provide relevant background and context in our stories, giving more meaning and import to the subjects we write about. With our websites, we can be fast and nimble, but, with our time and space, we can offer depth, and that depth serves readers best.

Community newspapers, especially, are vital to democracy.

As I’ve written before, local government is especially important because it has the most immediate and direct impact on the lives of its constituents.

Local government fixes, plows, and cleans your street. Local government helps determine the value of your home. Local government hires the police and firefighters who protect you. Local government builds the parks where you spend time with your family. Local government educates your children. Local government sets the zoning rules that determine the kinds of businesses that surround your home and the tax policies that can attract or repel investors.

And you can easily speak directly to the people in charge of making those decisions to make your case for how you want things to go. If you don’t like how things go, you can more easily initiate a recall. If you really don’t like how things go, you can pretty easily put your hat in the ring and run for elective local office yourself.

State and federal government is important and certainly affects your life, but not so directly and immediately as local government, and it’s a lot harder to move the bigger governments your way.

Nobody covers local government like community newspapers.

Community newspaper reporters attend the city council meetings and county board meetings and township board meetings and pester the folks at city hall to better understand the goings-on and issues affecting the community. Then they write it all up so you can better understand your community and its successes and failures.

But civic engagement goes behind local government, and so do community newspapers.

Community newspaper reporters also write about service clubs, the arts, philanthropic organizations, nonprofit service providers, and others who make the community work the best it can work.

The information collected and distributed by community newspapers can show you what your community needs and how you can get involved.

All of that — the information about the local government, the information about local nonprofits, service clubs, and others — arms you with the knowledge you need to make informed decisions about how to get involved in your community and have the most impact in doing so.

If you want to know your city, know your local paper.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.