Kentucky political analyst and journalist Al Cross says changes in the media landscape likely will affect coverage of the upcoming presidential election.
Cross says there’s been a decrease in trust in the media along with growing polarization.
He also says the consolidation of media and the collapse of local newsrooms has had an effect on how people view the national race.
“Local newspapers used to have lots of coverage and commentary about state government and politics, and the daily papers would have more about national stuff,” Cross said. “Now they're more locally focused, and people just have less information.”
He also says that decline has contributed to the widespread myth of voter fraud concerning the 2020 election.
“People are less inclined than ever to trust people in power, and they don't have a deep working knowledge of the election system,” Cross said. “Those of us who are familiar with the election system have a great deal of faith in it, but if we testify to that, people don't necessarily have a great deal of faith in us.”
More with Cross can be heard on this week’s episode of Democracy Optimist on Eastern Standard, hosted by UK election law professor Joshua Douglas. It airs Thursday morning at 11 a.m on WEKU.
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