Oana Martisca is a Romanian-born filmmaker who found herself most at home in the journalistic community in Miami. Martisca spent two years chronicling the current state of journalism. She interviewed dozens of renowned reporters and editors, including former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron. Her new documentary, "News Without a Newsroom," premiered at the Miami Film Festival and has won more than 10 awards around the world.

The film reveals how dwindling attention spans, changing media business models, and rapid technological change are recasting the future of news and democracy.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

In the film, the head of the American Journalism Project says the decline of local news happened over a generation, and it will take a generation to rebound. How will it regrow?

I don’t have the solution. I don’t think anybody does. I do think she’s right. Although it looks like it happened overnight, this change took time. It’s going to take some time to repair it or relearn how to better deal with it. The [American Journalism Project] is part of the solution with nonprofit news. That may be one solution; I don’t know if it’s the ultimate one. We should experiment, just like poking an amoeba. I think we should try this, or we should try that. Let’s see what works.

What gives me hope is the fact that this new generation is able to adapt faster and be smarter in some ways, and even have the boldness to kind of say no. They realize that, okay, this is not something that I need for my growth. Media literacy is the most important thing. We have to learn how to use the tools and how to make the distinction and just say, *Okay, I know this is an influencer. I know this is content. I know this is garbage. I know this is quality. *As much as we talk down on the next generation or the present one, it’s important that we educate them, starting now.

What effect does “grazing” through a newsfeed have on people psychologically?

Australia completely prohibited children or minors from using social media at all. I think that’s great, because I did not grow up with that. I did not even have a smartphone or an actual computer until much later. That allowed me to read a lot, to do things physically and in person, and appreciate that tactile aspect of learning, which is very essential. Andrew Huberman talks about how our prefrontal cortex—even if you’re reading on a tablet or a Kindle—does not process information in the same way when you read on paper. The brain doesn’t retain as well when it’s being stored in your memory in a different way. It’s more superficial.

What’s happening today with news grazing is a lot of people spend more time on these devices that make us feel, in a way, super-powered or smarter, but in other ways, we’re getting dumber because we think we know more. It’s not just the fact that we have access to knowledge. It doesn’t mean that we know how to use it, or that we even remember it, or that we can connect the dots.

We’re all getting less patient. There is a component of ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder] that has increased in our population, including myself. It’s taking us to a point where [news producers and content creators] are adapting to the illness but not trying to treat it. We want to have vertical videos and shorter stories. But we don’t want to put in the effort to learn how to make a quality, long-form journalism.

What are some tips on becoming more news literate?

Now is the time, instead of getting ourselves deeper into this mess, to go back to the basics and remember the skills that we have: creative skills, writing, spending time together. There are some unique traits that we as humans have and that we can lose unless we employ them more.

From a journalistic point of view, I’d say it’s important to go in person to talk with communities and not just make an opinion from your home, sitting online, and/or covering a story. You can’t do that. You have to be there. Go see things for yourself. Be curious. Don’t just rely on some quick posts that someone made.

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One of your subjects says, if we lose the news, we’ll lose democracy. What is the wider importance of news?

In the film, I mention that broadcast journalism helped create the Civil Rights Movement. It brought awareness. In my home country of Romania, when we took down our dictator [Nicolae Ceaușescu], the first thing that people did was take over the two state-controlled television outlets, because the news was how they were controlling the population. It was propaganda. They had to take over that and show them the truth. We cannot have a democracy if everything being reported to us is controlled by only one entity, which is what is trying to happen right now.

They’re removing people who are speaking up about certain issues. It’s getting more toward censorship. I keep saying this is not even censorship anymore, because the danger is self-censorship. People are afraid to even speak up. They’ll lose their jobs, they’ll be attacked, or they’ll be removed. That is one of the very first traits of authoritarian government. That is where journalistic institutions have a vital role in regulating a democracy.

What do you think viewers should take away from this film?

With anything in life, whether in science, film, reading a book, the most important thing is not to receive the answers right away. I think the function of art, and even science, is to ask more questions. My hope is for viewers to become more aware of these issues that are being presented in the film. Be curious. Do not take what is being fed to them or what they see as the truth. To question.