Ars Technica has a good review of the Knight Commission study on the information needs of communities in a democracy (PDF download).

Called “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age,” the report laments the decline of local news coverage, but punctures the myth that there was ever adequate local coverage to begin with.

As Ars Technica points out:

For all the glories of the blogo/webo/streamo/facebooktwitter-osphere, people still don’t have much access to constructive information about critical issues facing their square block.

With a lack of national broadband penetration and a dearth of actual local news coverage, the study says we’re in danger of having second class info citizens. Not a way for a democracy to survive. And certainly not a way for it to thrive.