How Trump thrives in ‘news deserts’ politi.co/2HkKTg3
Our latest investigation shows a clear correlation between counties with low news subscription rates and Trump’s success in the 2016 election politi.co/2HkKTg3 (1/6) 
The decline of local media sources – creating so-called “news-deserts” – may have played a role in election results politi.co/2HkKTg3 (2/6)
By the start of the 2016 election campaign, newspapers had seen 25 years of sharp subscription declines. Meanwhile, Twitter more than doubled its users from 2012 to 2016, and Facebook became as a dominant tool for presidential candidates politi.co/2HkKTg3 (3/6)
To people who study the flow of political information, there’s no doubt that a lack of trusted local media created a void that was filled by social media and partisan national outlets politi.co/2HkKTg3 (4/6)
Trump’s 50 million Twitter following far exceeds the number of subscribers for all news outlets, print and digital, in the country – 35 million for weekday and 38 million on Sundays as of 2016 politi.co/2HkKTg3 (5/6)
Trump himself suggested that social media was the only truly necessary communications tool in his arsenal. “I doubt I would be here if it weren’t for social media,” he said in October. Read our full investigation: politi.co/2HkKTg3 (6/6)
