Ask people what they need from their local news and you expect the familiar litany — the economy, housing, the schools. In Augusta, Georgia, a new survey of more than 500 Black residents got a different answer, and it sits at the top of the list like a siren: how to be prepared for disasters. Not jobs. Not real estate. Survival. And it is not hard to see why, because Augusta still carries the scars of 2024’s Hurricane Helene, which tore along the city’s perch on the Savannah River, toppled trees and powerlines, caused $87 million in damage and left 11 people dead. A city that chewed does not soon forget the teeth.
The survey, reported by Capital B — the nonprofit newsroom preparing to launch an Augusta operation this fall — was conducted in July with the Civic Information Needs Census and Embold Research, as part of CINC’s wider effort to map the information gaps in media deserts across the country. What it found in Augusta is a population that knows exactly what matters and cannot reliably find out about it. Black Augustans rated emergency preparedness, public safety, the local environment, and health and well-being as their most important issues. Interviews backed the numbers up: one longtime resident named crime a top concern and pointed to the gap in outdoor recreational space in her neighborhood; others pointed to flooding, failing infrastructure and a general lack of investment that makes it hard to feel safe and healthy in their own city.
Now here is the machine-age absurdity at the heart of it: an era when a person can summon the weather radar, the war news, the Westminster gossip from a slab of glass in one second flat — and cannot learn whether the flood grant application has opened. For 12 of 13 local topics in the survey, the gaps between how important Black residents ranked an issue and how easily they could find information about it ran into double digits. The widest gulf was economic opportunity, then the environment, housing and health. Several residents told the surveyors that people miss out on grants and opportunities simply because they don’t know how to access the information — and the wish, repeated across interviews, was for local news to fill those gaps rather than leaning so hard on crime and arrests. Weather, notably, was the exception: residents ranked it highly important and feel relatively satisfied finding it.
The strangest finding in the pile: news about one’s own neighborhood is harder to get than news about the state, the nation or the world. Even the plugged-in said they often feel lost trying to keep up with local government. That tracks with what CINC has found in other cities, but in Augusta the burden isn’t evenly shared. Men surveyed were 10 points more likely than women to say local news and information is hard to find, and younger Black Augustans have had more difficulty than older residents.
Then comes the generational schism, in percentages sharp as a sprocket. The three main go-to sources for local information are local television, online search engines, and friends, family and neighbors. But 68 percent of respondents over 65 named local TV among their most useful sources — and only 13 percent of respondents ages 18 to 34 agreed. Flip the screen and you find 39 percent of the youngest group turning to content creators on social media, against just 7 percent of the older group. Younger residents told interviewers they prioritize social media over television, singling out TikTok as especially useful. CINC has seen the pattern elsewhere, but Augusta posted the largest age difference it has observed to date.
Do not mistake any of this for apathy. Six in 10 Black Augustans said they had participated in at least one civic activity in the past 12 months — volunteering with a local group, attending a protest, the acts themselves. Men, adults ages 35 to 54 and the college-educated were likelier to say so. And even among the civically engaged, basic information must be puzzled together in the absence of accessible sources; one resident said better access would leave them better prepared to engage with local officials and pass word along to their neighbors.
What do they want covered, in their own words? More stories about achievement, resilience, where to find resources, and chances to connect and enjoy the city with their neighbors — not a gloss over the challenges, Capital B reports, but a pushback against coverage that leans only on hardship. Residents described the ideal newsroom as one that understands Augusta as a complex city: challenges that need addressing, successes worth covering. Capital B says the survey is one of the most detailed pictures yet of the city’s information needs, and that what its Augusta newsroom becomes starts with what residents said here. The people have filed their assignment letters. The work begins this fall.