Facebook and other social media have been under scrutiny for vaccine misinformation, but local outlets have also sometimes been active.

The Freedom’s Phoenix, a local news site in Phoenix, and The Atlanta Business Journal, a news site in Atlanta, both published the same article about coronavirus vaccines in March.

But The Freedom’s Phoenix and The Atlanta Business Journal are two small publications — along with dozens of radio and television stations, and podcasts aimed at local audiences — that have also become powerful conduits for anti-vaccine messaging, researchers said.

Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopathic physician and vaccine skeptic, was recently on Coach Dave Live, a podcast in Ohio aimed at local audiences, misleadingly claiming that coronavirus vaccines disrupt people’s fertility.

Their appearances on local media can have an impact since Americans are more likely to believe what they read and hear from local news outlets.

“People think they are trusting their local news, something reliable and familiar, when in fact they are trusting misinformation,” said Rachel Moran, a fellow at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington.

Many local media publications and stations have reported responsibly and factually on the pandemic.

Gannett, the publisher with 100 daily newspapers and nearly 1,000 weekly publications across 43 states, has dedicated resources to fact-checking and teaching journalists that accuracy matters more than speed, said Amalie Nash, senior vice president for local news and audience development at USA Today, which is owned by Gannett.

But as the local news industry has been hit by declining advertising revenues and cuts, some outlets have sometimes unknowingly run vaccine misinformation because they have fewer employees or less oversight than in the past, said Ken Doctor, a news industry analyst.

There were 1,762 local television stations and 3,379 radio stations operating in the United States last year, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association and Syracuse University.

Jo Lukito, an assistant journalism professor who studies disinformation at the University of Texas at Austin, said local media is often a starting point that creates a “trading up the chain” effect.

It starts when a rumor is covered or published in local media, she said, where it can gain a sheen of credibility.

One radio show that appears to have been part of that effect is Coast to Coast AM, which is syndicated on 640 local stations and reaches nearly three million weekly listeners.