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Denver’s news landscape has been abuzz with the potential takeover of existing stations by Nexstar and Sinclair. An expert on local journalism says the laissez faire attitude of regulators means it’s up to viewers to make their voices heard on station content.

Last year, Denver’s broadcast news market was shaken as Nexstar and Sinclair—the two largest owners of television stations in the country—made moves to enter Colorado by acquiring the parent companies of 9News and Denver7.

Neither is yet a done deal. The Federal Communications Commission would have to approve the sale of Tegna, which owns 9News, to Nexstar; meanwhile, Denver7 owner Scripps rejected Sinclair’s takeover bid late last month. But relying on regulators or corporations to protect Colorado journalism is a poor strategy, said an expert on local news.

“The community needs to step in—that’s the only thing that can prevent these economic and social missteps,” said Angelica Kalika (PhDMediaSt’19), an assistant teaching professor of journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “When the community says, ‘we’re not going to watch this kind of content, this isn’t what we want’—if you are profit driven, you should listen to your audience, right?”

For that audience, Kalika said, takeovers represent a case of less choice means less voice. Consolidations typically mean fewer reporters to provide local coverage, encouraging stations to carry more national content. And the conservatism championed by both Nexstar and Sinclair would not reflect the progressive attitudes of viewers in the Denver metro market, while also encouraging the formation of a news desert. Kalika, who studies hyper-local news, said when the same people and companies own all the outlets, it means fewer editorial voices to watch town halls, board meetings and other news that’s ignored by larger, national players.

“Look at 9News—it’s iconic, it has a very clear brand,” Kalika said. “Is the community going to stand up to the corporations and make their voice heard?”

It’s something that worked, she said, when the Walt Disney Co. pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air “and people screamed.” Search traffic on how to cancel Disney+ spiked as influential voices condemned the decision to suspend Kimmel.

“And Disney responded right away, because at the end of the day, it’s about the money. If you find organized ways to uplift community voices while hurting someone’s bottom line, you can have more control over your local media.”

A history of consolidation

Angelica Kalika

That public pressure will be required to counter an FCC that has enthusiastically embraced deregulation—not just in journalism, but across media in general. Last month, an $83 billion bid by Netflix to acquire WB stunned a legacy media industry already reeling from the tech industry’s continued incursions into their business—first by converting cable customers into streaming subscribers, and more recently by acquiring reliable revenue-generating intellectual property; the James Bond franchise, for instance, was sold to Amazon for $20 million last winter. The WB deal, which features a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, is the latest in the trend toward consolidation, which has seen takeovers by Xfinity, Disney, Amazon and others.

“The big tech companies have their eyes on local media and entertainment, because ultimately their goal is control of information and access to information,” Kalika said. “It’s worth analyzing the minutia of these deals and the climate at the FCC because the more omnipresent tech becomes here, the more we end up in bubbles of information—where we don’t know what’s real.”

Kalika knows what she’s talking about. She teaches a popular CMDI course on media and technology and has published several papers on the fall of legacy media gatekeepers—especially through the lens of TMZ, which in its pursuit of scoops has sometimes crossed lines that journalists will not. A paper she presented at the National Communication Association’s annual convention looks at TMZ’s decision to publish photos of the body of One Direction singer Liam Payne after he fell to his death; editors then removed the post without explanation amid public outcry.

‘No more adults in the room’

“We’ve lost the social rail guards of what media is legitimate and what is not, what is trustworthy and what is not,” she said. While Kalika said there are trusted, verified sources in social media, those standards aren’t as visible as they were when most Americans got their news from local newspapers and network television. So, it’s harder to detect mis- and disinformation—especially as the algorithms populating news feeds are focused on engagement.

“There are no more adults in the room,” she said. “Everyone is now fighting for attention. They didn’t have to before.”

With the adults out, the natural place to look is at the kids. Kalika said legacy media’s inability to create authentic content for Gen Z—or to nurture them as an audience, the way Viacom did through properties like Nickelodeon, MTV and VH1—is a troubling indicator for the future, especially as many turn to YouTube, TikTok and others for news and entertainment.

“I can’t predict what they’re going to do, but I know they’re aware and trying to make changes in real time to the media and political environment that’s being presented to them,” she said. “I think they are going to use their money and who they’re signing up for streaming in order to get their voice and values heard and reflected in brands.”

That kind of pressure is going to require news organizations to be creative in order to maintain and grow their local audiences—something we might see in Denver as threats of consolidation loom.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you start seeing some kind of profit-sharing business models, or people who provide direct financial support to a station in return for, say, a meet-and-greet event with reporters,” Kalika said. “I think we’re going to start seeing a growth in experimental business models.”��

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.