The Fourth Estate and Public Health in the Heart of America
Photographer Jeremiah Ariaz on the Correlation Between a Free Press and a Civil Society | By Kimberly J. Soenen
(Still Life, The Morning Sun, Pittsburg, Kansas, 2022. Photo by Jeremiah Ariaz)
Dear Readers,
THE FINE PRINT remains on hiatus for one more month, however, this OpEd by Jeremiah Ariaz published in the Washington Post earlier this week warrants attention in the context of Public Health, the value of high quality local journalism, and the need for Health Philosophy Transformation in the United States.
Recently, I interviewed Ariaz about his work documenting the rapid decline of local newspapers across the United States. I spoke with him at length about the role small town newspapers play in Public Health and Safety.
(Bound Archives, Parsons Sun, Parsons, Kansas 2023. Photo by Jeremiah Ariaz)
In the United States, the dismantling of Public Health infrastructure over the last 40 years of Managed Care privatization has run exactly parallel to rural health clinic/hospital closures and newspaper closures.
Overall, 2,500 newspapers in the United States — a quarter of them — have closed since 2005. The country is now on track to lose one-third of its newspapers by 2025. In many places, the surviving local media outlets have made major cuts to staff and circulation, and—like corporate hospital chains— are now owned and managed by persons living and operating outside of their region.
Here is the OpEd (*subscription required.)
(America’s First People, Darkroom, Former Emporia Gazette Office, Emporia, Kansas, 2022. Photo by Jeremiah Ariaz.)
Learn more about Ariaz and the project in my interview with him for THE FINE PRINT here.
To health,
Kimberly
Additional Resources >
Rural Hospital Closures since January 2005
Feel free to follow Jeremiah’s ongoing work on this project here.
Purchase related modules in support of the artist here.