Lost Storytellers

Community journalism in the era of clickbait

An incisive and firsthand look at the landscape of community news today, Lost Storytellers argues that the decline of local journalism threatens the future of democracy. Award-winning photojournalist John Pendygraft asks: How did Americans lose trust in the media, and how can their local newsrooms earn it back?

Pendygraft uses his own experiences at Florida’s largest newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, to illustrate why trusted local reporting matters more than ever in the era of “fake news,” clickbait, conspiracy theories, and social media. Through interviews with his colleagues, the history of his own paper, journeys into the evolutionary psychology of storytelling, and examples of the ways multinational media conglomerates hook readers on news cycles of chaos and crisis, Pendygraft argues that community journalists can reclaim their roles as local storytellers—and that the public good demands that they try. Lost Storytellers offers insights for all who feel confused about the media, politics, and the well-being of their communities in the information age.