As we approach 2022, mass media includes newspapers, radio, television, cable, websites, blogs, iPhone apps, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube… and the list goes on.

While there’s more ways to receive news, actual sources of trustworthy, independent, local journalism in Illinois are declining. With that in mind, Illinois Public Media is asking Who’s In Charge of The News? With special coverage October 25-29, U.S. Media Literacy Week. Among the highlights on Morning Edition on WILL-AM/FM or The 21st talk show:

• The newspaper scene in Ford County, where journalists launched local news coverage after downsizing of the local newspaper.
  
  
• A reality check on how dying newspapers impact local communities.
  
  
• Could new laws save independent journalism in Illinois? How do you know the journalism that you’re reading, watching or listening to is fact-based?
  
  
• On WILL-TV on October 28 at 8pm: NewsTown: When Northwestern University professor and video journalist Craig Duff heard that the 150-year-old Youngstown Vindicator was closing, he resolved to go back to the area where he grew up in northeast Ohio and document how the community was coping with the loss of its newspaper.