Americans find it easier to find news about the world than their own community

Four new studies by the Civic Information Needs Census deepen our understanding of the "Proximity Paradox"

In five successive studies, the Civic Information Needs Census (CINC) has found that Americans say it is harder to find news about their own neighborhood — and in four of the five, their own town or city — than about the country and the world.

In one community study, more than half of respondents said it was “somewhat” or “very” difficult to find local news, while just 21% and 22% said the same about national and international news.

The history of communications technology has been a story of distance collapsing. The printing press, the telegraph, the telephone, radio, TV, and the internet each made the world feel smaller. News from across the country or the globe could arrive in days, then hours, then seconds.

Now, that trend has produced a strange inversion: Americans today find it easier to follow events halfway around the world than to find out what’s happening on their own block.

We call this the Proximity Paradox. And we see it as proof of the profound challenge Americans face in navigating their daily lives and communities without access to quality local news and information.

In the coming weeks, we’ll publish the results of four new CINC studies, each done in partnership with an organization working in the community surveyed:

1. Tampa Bay, Florida in partnership with the American Journalism Project

2. Marin County, California in partnership with Cityside

3. Chicago, Illinois in partnership with Chicago Public Media

4. the state of Arkansas in partnership with Deep South Today ahead of its launch of Arkansas Today

For each, we’ll take a deep dive into the specific local findings. But first, we want to share what we’ve learned about the Proximity Paradox.

What is CINC, again?

The Civic Information Needs Census (CINC) is a research tool and initiative housed at Civic News Company and done in partnership with Embold Research.

It is designed to equip the civic information field – newsrooms, funders, libraries, government, and community organizations – with essential shared data on local information needs, media habits, and civic engagement. It is both a community survey and a coalition-building practice, designed to bring practitioners and funders together around a common set of facts so they can prioritize their work and track their impact over time.

CINC started in 2024 with a national baseline survey, followed by local pilots in Chicago and New York City (the reports and data from those pilots are here). The idea has always been the same: civic information should be the fuel of civic life. People can’t get involved in their communities, hold institutions accountable, or make informed decisions about their own lives without good information about what’s happening around them — and too many people don’t have it. CINC exists to measure that gap, consistently and repeatedly, so the field can act on it.

The new Proximity Paradox data

We first noticed the Proximity Paradox when we analyzed the results of a December 2025 national. In that survey, 44% and 42% said it was difficult to find information about their neighborhood and city or town in their day-to-day life, but just 26% and 30% said the same for national and international news and information.

This spring, we asked the same question of respondents in these four new communities and saw that pattern repeat:

And while the gaps varied, in every survey respondents said they found it less difficult to find national and international news than news about their own neighborhood.

For the most part, that same pattern held true even at the town or city level. Only in Chicago did the gap close to within the margin of error (3.1% for that study):

In the coming weeks, we’ll explore what might explain some of the significant geographic variations in this data.

We’ll start with a look at Chicago, which has the smallest Proximity Paradox effect of the group and is the first community where we’re able to compare new data to a previous CINC.

What are you curious about? What did you notice? Are you interested in partnering with us to run a CINC in your community? Send us an email at contact@infocensus.org.

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Sources and Methodology

Figures show the share of respondents who said it is “very” or “somewhat” difficult to get information, in response to the question: “How difficult is it for you to get information about each of the following in your day-to-day life?” Surveys were conducted by the Civic Information Needs Census with Embold Research.

The national survey was conducted among registered voters nationwide, while the four community studies were conducted among adults in each community.

• National (Dec 2025) — fielded December 15–21, 2025; n = 1,765 (weighted); margin of error 2.4%.

• Tampa Bay (May 2026) — fielded May 15–26, 2026; n = 1,006 (weighted); margin of error 3.1%.

• Marin County (May 2026) — fielded May 14–22, 2026; n = 832 (weighted); margin of error 3.6%.

• Chicago (Jun 2026) — fielded May 28–June 9, 2026; n = 1,010 (weighted); margin of error 3.1%.

• Arkansas (Jun 2026) — fielded June 9–18, 2026; n = 1,011 (weighted); margin of error 3.3%.

For reference, a broader December 2025–February 2026 national sample that also included non-registered-voter adults (n = 2,241; margin of error 2.1%) shows the same broad pattern with somewhat smaller gaps — for example, the gap between neighborhood and national news is +15 percentage points rather than +18.