Mapping What’s Possible: Local News and Information in Charlotte

by Sam Spencer

There’s something about using water as a metaphor for information that intuitively makes sense. We “surf” channels and “stream” content. We drink from the “firehose” and get “flooded” by information overload. 

Like water, we can’t imagine life without these resources, even as we increasingly find ourselves adrift in an “information ocean” — a frame to describe our media landscape coined by Sarah Stonbely, Ph.D. Unlike in “news deserts,” the problem isn’t a scarcity of information: it’s whether people can find, trust, and use what they need in their lives.  

New research commissioned by the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund and led by Stonbely at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University shows exactly what that looks like in my hometown of Charlotte. It reveals not only the challenges facing Charlotte, but also the organizations shifting narratives, closing gaps, and ensuring their communities are seen, heard, and informed. It reinforces the ecosystem approach that the Fund has long held, pointing to a clear path for funders who want their investments to matter. 

Using a first-of-its-kind methodology, the research team examined the local news and information ecosystem in Charlotte, North Carolina, over a one-year period, analyzing thousands of stories sourced from 66 local news providers and more than 500 civil society organizations. These sources ranged from the daily paper (The Charlotte Observer) and the public radio station (WFAE), to Spanish-language sources and the local school system.

More information doesn’t necessarily mean better service, and geography influences access to useful information. The research showed communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, and those outside of major activity centers (Charlotte’s city hall, stadiums, universities, and the airport) are more likely to experience coverage gaps. In turn, that uneven representation in coverage shapes and reinforces harmful narratives. Predominantly Black neighborhoods are disproportionately covered in the context of crime, while stories of community life, civic engagement, and entertainment are underrepresented.

The research also documents what’s possible when trusted, community-centered organizations are present and resourced. These organizations — many of them grant partners of the Fund — are the lighthouses and lifeboats in Charlotte’s information ocean.

In Charlotte’s Historic West End neighborhoods, locally owned and operated outlets QCity Metro and The Charlotte Post offer extensive coverage of local news and events. On Charlotte’s east side, Spanish-language outlets like Qué Pasa and Enlace Latino NC fill coverage gaps in Hispano/Latino communities. Trusted communicators include institutions identified in the research as “civil society organizations” or CSOs: schools, libraries, and places of worship. These organizations are filling key information gaps, including in my own census block, where Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is the top information provider of the sources analyzed.

Across Charlotte, trusted local communicators elevate the stories residents and families need to make decisions about their lives, connect with their communities, and participate in our democracy. Members of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, including WFAE, QCity Metro, and Qnotes Carolinas are more likely than average to publish stories about elections, public policy, and education, connecting their readers and listeners with vital news and information, while telling a more complete story of Charlotte and North Carolina.

This is what the Fund is built to accelerate. For nearly a decade, the Fund has invested in the full range of roles in our information ecosystem – local newsrooms, community organizations, and trusted communicators who are rooted in their communities across the state. They’re closing information gaps and telling the whole story of their communities, and in turn, that drives a healthier, more connected, and more civically engaged North Carolina. 

This research adds rigorous, place-based proof of what funders know about investing in news and information, and it points to how investments can go even further. As a pooled fund — and the home of Press Forward North Carolina and Press Forward Charlotte — we move this work forward alongside a growing coalition of funders.

Join the Fund in supporting these community assets.