---
title: "Hurricane Helene survivors turn to local news"
description: "Plus, Assange says he pleaded “guilty to journalism” to end incarceration"
date: "2024-10-03"
authors:
  - name: "Jacob Liedke"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/newsletter/the-briefing/hurricane-helene-survivors-turn-to-local-news/"
---

# Hurricane Helene survivors turn to local news

**☀️ Happy Thursday!** *The Briefing is your guide to the world of news and information*.* [**Sign up here!**](https://www.pewresearch.org/sign-up-for-the-briefing/)*

**In today*’*s email:**

- **Featured story:** People affected by Hurricane Helene are turning to local news outlets

- **In other news:** Assange says he “pled guilty to journalism” to end incarceration

- **Looking ahead:** CNN and Reuters to introduce website paywalls

- **Chart of the week:** How journalists and the public differ in their views of "bothsidesism"

🔥 **Featured story**

In the wake of **Hurricane Helene,** [people in affected areas are turning to local news outlets](https://www.poynter.org/locally/2024/after-hurricane-helene-neighbors-are-whats-getting-us-through-this/) to provide critical, trustworthy updates on damage, relief efforts and more. With the widespread loss of phone service – and the spread of misinformation online – **old-fashioned media** like **radio stations** are [helping people navigate the aftermath](https://www.axios.com/2024/10/01/helene-north-carolina-media-misinformation-fact-checking) of the natural disaster.

Most U.S. adults (85%) say **local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community**, including 44% who say they are extremely or very important, according to a [2024 Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/05/07/views-of-local-news/). But locals’ [access to certain kinds of news outlets](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/05/07/sources-of-local-news/) may be limited by where they live. Americans who live in rural areas are much less likely than others to say there is a TV news station covering their local area. And **one-in-five rural Americans say they don't have a radio station covering their area,** while an additional 18% say they are not sure if they have local radio coverage.

📌 **In other news**

- **Julian Assange** says he pleaded ["guilty to journalism”](https://apnews.com/article/julian-assange-statement-council-europe-5373cfb854474deba0e5799b23cb8d2e) to end incarceration

- **Independent Russian newspaper **[stops publishing](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/forced-closure-weekly-spells-end-russias-independent-press-2024-10-02/) after being labeled as foreign agent

- **Trump **[backs out of prime-time interview](https://www.npr.org/2024/10/01/nx-s1-5135681/trump-60-minutes-jd-vance-tim-walz-debate-2024) with **60 Minutes on CBS**

- **The Onion** to revive [cable news parody show](https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/09/30/the-onion-news-network-joshua-johnson-host/) Onion News Network

- [Assaults on U.S. journalists increase](https://www.axios.com/2024/10/01/israel-gaza-war-assaults-journalists), linked to Israel-Hamas war protests

- How **social media users** are [documenting the war in Gaza](https://newlinesmag.com/argument/preserving-the-ephemera-of-war/)

- A look into [debates over social media’s role](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/07/social-media-mental-health-suicide-crisis-teens?_sp=b8695b52-22c0-470e-b340-9c787e5e71ad.1727894029874) in **teen suicide crisis**

📅 **Looking ahead**

Earlier this week, **CNN** and** Reuters **announced that they plan to [introduce paywalls](https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4910822-cnn-reuters-launching-digital-paywalls/) to their websites. This move comes at a time when news websites are [trying to find the right balance](https://www.axios.com/2024/02/06/great-subscription-news-reversal) between revenue from advertising and subscriptions.

About a quarter of U.S. adults (23%) say they **prefer to get news from news websites or apps** over any other source, according to [a recent Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/news-platform-fact-sheet/). Television is the only platform that is preferred by a larger share of Americans (32%).

📊 **Chart of the week**

This week's chart looks at how journalists and the public differ in their views of "bothsidesism" in news coverage. In [a 2022 survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/07/13/u-s-journalists-differ-from-the-public-in-their-views-of-bothsidesism-in-journalism/), about three-quarters of U.S. adults (76%) said journalists should always strive to give all sides equal coverage. But in a survey of U.S. journalists, a little more than half (55%) said that every side does not always deserve equal coverage in the news.

![A bar chart showing that U.S. journalists are more likely than the public to say all sides don’t always deserve equal coverage.](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/ft_2022.07.13_bothsidesjournalism_01.webp?w=640)

*👋 That's all for this week. *

The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Sarah Naseer, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang and Emily Tomasik. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Anna Jackson.

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