Monica Nieporte

OMNA President and Executive Director

For too many years people undervalued having a local newspaper, local radio station and local journalists who they knew by name and trusted.

People eagerly turned to social media as an alternative to subscribing to their local paper or tuning in their local radio or tv station. We saw early signs of trouble as more and more people started sharing unsubstantiated rumors with their friend groups as news or facts.

We saw the dangers of this during the Covid pandemic and 2020 election. We continue to see that no topic is immune. Springfield has dealt with viral social media posts causing chaos in their community and now those in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee are finding internet misinformation getting in the way of its residents and disaster help. This is a truly dangerous situation. Some of what is being shared is not done with bad intent – but these folks are just blindly passing along every rumor and every internet post they see on the topic without realizing the harm that can come from someone being misinformed. People who are trying to coordinate supply drives and search and rescue assistance are being sent on wild goose chases and thwarted by people circulating rumors.

We are already seeing it again this week with Hurricane Milton. People being falsely told that FEMA has no money for them and won’t help them. What if people decide not to evacuate because of this and end up losing their lives?

It has never been more important for communities to have a local news source they can trust. We can see how easily large groups of people can be swayed into believing something without any factual basis in reality. This does not bode well for communities where there are no local journalists to help them sort fact from fiction.