Includes index.

"How were the events of 2020 experienced in small towns and cities often overlooked by national newspapers? What does the coverage of these events look like when told not by those with long experiences with local communities? And, finally, what is lost as this kind of local coverage disappears as has been happening for the past couple of decades in the United States. These are the questions at the center of The Year of Fear: Four American Towns on the Way to November. Taken together, the dispatches the comprise this book and written by four longtime local journalists in different parts of the United States capture a distinct and intimate look at how a calamitous year played out in their communities and serves as a powerful reminder of the power of local news. The Year of Fear reports on Bowling Green, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; McKeesport, Pennsylvania; and McAllen, Texas from the perspective of local journalists. Avoiding the tired clichés that result from "parachute journalism," this book reports on how these towns grapple with, understand, and talk about issues relating to race, schooling, health, immigration, deindustrialization, as well as local and national politics amid a changing and increasingly precarious information ecosystem"--