Local Newspaper Coverage of Congress

Political observers have extensively documented the national media's focus on committee and party leaders. Legislators' local coverage, in contrast, remains largely unexplored and unexplained. This article examines 40 local newspapers to explore how these factors may influence legislators' local newspaper coverage. We find that local newspapers do not provide more coverage to congressional leaders and that independent papers write more frequently than chain-owned competitors about the local House delegation. Additionally, the extent to which a legislator's district geographically overlaps with the newspaper's market has a strong effect on legislators' mentions.

This article examines local news coverage of an election in one of the nation's “social capital capitals,” Minnesota. In Minnesota, according to theorized connections between civic involvement and news media use, we might expect the orientation of local news to be local and the quality of coverage of local campaigns to be high. Content analysis of all evening newscasts on all four non-cable channels in the Minneapolis market (the 13th largest television market in the United States) for the 12 weeks leading to the day of the election yielded striking evidence on the amount and nature of local television news coverage. The predominant news emphasis was on the presidential race, with considerably less attention to the close U.S. Senate contest, and very little or nothing on any other race; local television news was mostly not local. As with previous studies, this analysis showed prime emphasis on strategy and game, while the far fewer “issue” stories tended to be thin. These local television news shows also offered very little airtime with candidates speaking directly. In addition, seven focus groups were conducted in Minnesota, in which subjects were asked about local television news coverage. Subjects expressed frustration with the brevity and superficiality of election news stories and with the stations' claims of providing in-depth coverage. Judging by our data, levels of civic and political involvement in Minnesota may remain high despite, rather than because of, political coverage by local television news.

Local newspapers reflect the voices of the periphery as they have direct and close connections with the local community. This study aims to examine the coverage policy of local newspapers in Khulna, with a particular focus on a comparative analysis of local and national news. This study followed a sequential research design, employing content analysis and in-depth interview methods. The content analysis method was used to assess the several aspects of news coverage and six in-depth interviews were conducted to explore the explanation of content analysis. A total of 2,278 news articles from three local newspapers were scanned and manually inputted into a coding sheet. These codes were analyzed with Microsoft Excell-16 and news-theme was visualized with NVivo-11. The analysis was divided into three phases (i.e., Comparative coverage, news theme, and geographical proximity). The major findings indicate that the ratio of local and national news coverage demonstrates minimal variance in terms of both frequency and column-inch metrics. It has been revealed, however, that the majority of advertisements (96.02%) come from local sources but coverage of local news is comparatively lower, accounting for 53.90%. The most covered local news theme is crime (41.77%), while political news gets highest coverage in the national news category which is 29.81%. Additionally, Jessore district, one of the nearest districts of Khulna receives the highest coverage which is 13.74% while Meherpur district, geographically remotest district of Khulna, received the lowest coverage. The majority of local news is capital-centric, with the Dhaka division receiving the maximum coverage at 93.02%. It indicates that local news was not sufficiently prioritized in local newspapers. Even while geographical proximity acted as a significant factor in news coverage, the news is predominantly urban-oriented.

This paper estimates the effects of media coverage in organic food production and the National Organic Program (NOP) on food purchases. Information from several independent data sources is complied into a unique data set that directly links national and local newspaper coverage to fluid milk consumption. An analysis of weekly store-level scanner data in a difference-in-differences approach suggests average increases in organic milk sales relative to conventional milk sales of 5 percent during weeks for which relevant news coverage is observed. Increases in intensity of news coverage, measured by the number of articles in a given week, are further found to increase the relative difference in sales but at a decreasing rate. However, these effects are found to dissipate quickly in the weeks following news coverage. Differentiating by context of observed articles suggests that product category specific coverage doubles observed increases in sales when compared to general coverage, while critical national and local coverage does not result in significant changes in organic milk sales. Furthermore, local news coverage seems to have a relatively higher impact than national news coverage, with increases in circulation of one local newspaper resulting in increased organic milk sales as well. Our results provide valuable insights for the evaluation of existing labeling regulations and future regulations on specialty foods in this context.

We present the first longitudinal evidence that declining local political news coverage is reducing citizen engagement. Drawing on a content analysis of more than 10,000 stories about US House campaigns in 2010 and 2014, we show that local newspapers over this period published less, and less substantive, political news. We then use panel data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to investigate how the news environment influences citizen engagement. Tracking the same individuals over time and simultaneously measuring changes in media content in their communities reveals that reductions in citizens' political knowledge and participation follow declines in coverage about congressional elections. To the extent that the local news environment continues to deteriorate—a likely scenario as the industry continues to struggle—observers' concerns about political engagement in localities across the United States appear very much justified.

Has the decline in traditional sources of local news contributed to the nationalization of U.S. elections? I hypothesize that local news coverage mitigates nationalization by providing voters with information that allows them to assess down-ballot candidates separately from their national, partisan assessment. The geography of media markets places some voters in a neighboring state’s market and others in in-state markets. I demonstrate that residents of in-state markets have access to vastly more local television news coverage of their governor and U.S. senators, and this increased coverage translates into greater knowledge of these officeholders. Further, access to in-state television news substantially increases split-ticket voting in gubernatorial and senatorial races. Supplementary analyses provide strong evidence that the estimated effects are not the result of unobserved differences between residents of in-state and out-of-state media markets. These results imply that local news coverage attenuates the nationalization of elections even in the present polarized context.

A substantial proportion of American adults hold fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention despite evidence that a large proportion of cancer deaths are preventable. Several scholars suggest that news media coverage is one source of these beliefs, but scant evidence has been brought to bear on this assertion. We report findings from two studies that assess the plausibility of the claim that local television (TV) news cultivates fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention. Study 1 features a content analysis of an October 2002 national sample of local TV and newspaper coverage about cancer (n=122 television stations; n=60 newspapers). Study 2 describes an analysis of the 2005 Annenberg National Health Communication Survey (ANHCS, n=1,783 respondents). Study 1 indicates that local TV news stories were more likely than newspaper stories to mention cancer causes and scientific research and less likely to provide follow-up information. Study 2 reveals that local TV news viewing was positively associated with fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention. Overall, findings are consistent with the claim that local TV news coverage may promote fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention. We conclude with a discussion of study implications for cultivation theory and the knowledge gap hypothesis and suggest foci for future research.

Can "urban-centric" local television news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic affect the behavior of rural residents with lived experiences so different from their "local" news coverage? Leveraging quasi-random geographic variation in media markets for 771 matched rural counties, we show that rural residents are more likely to practice social distancing if they live in a media market that is more impacted by COVID-19. Individual-level survey responses from residents of these counties confirm county-level behavioral differences and help attribute the differences we identify to differences in local television news coverage-self-reported differences only exist among respondents who prefer watching local news, and there are no differences in media usage or consumption across media markets. Although important for showing the ability of local television news to affect behavior despite urban-rural differences, the media-related effects we identify are at most half the size of the differences related to partisan differences.

To better understand the role of local news in voters’ opinions of candidates, we ask whether candidate coverage in local news sources readily activates race and gender stereotypes in voters’ opinions of presidential primary candidates? We conduct an original content analysis of local newspaper coverage of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential primary season. We code 1,849 news articles in 11 battleground and early primary states to evaluate how local news coverage frames issues of race and gender for each candidate. Then we utilize the 2008 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project (CCAP) to match primary voters with their local news content. We find considerable variation in local news coverage of candidates’ race and gender across states. While local news coverage frames Obama and Clinton in terms of race and gender issues, we find that race is covered more frequently. In addition, we find that as news coverage of gender issues increases, voters are not less likely to characterize Clinton as a strong leader. However, as local news focuses more readily on Obama’s race, voters are less likely to consider him trustworthy. These findings illustrate the power of local news media to activate stereotypes related to race and gender.

The degree to which the media report a health emergency affects the seriousness with which the people respond to combat the health crisis. Engagement from local newspapers in the US has received scant scrutiny, even though there is a sizable body of scholarship on the analysis of COVID-19 news. We fill this void by focusing on the Rio Grande Valley area of the US-Mexico border. To understand the differences, we compared such local news coverage with the coverage of a national news outlet. After collecting the relevant news articles, we used sentiment analysis, rapid automatic keyword extraction (RAKE), and co-occurrence network analysis to examine the main themes and sentiments of COVID-19 news articles. The RAKE identified that county-specific news or local regulations are more prevalent among the key terms in The Monitor which are absent in USA Today. The co-occurrence network shows the coverage of the disruption of sports season in USA Today which is not present in The Monitor. The sentiment analysis presents fear emotion is more dominant in USA Today, but trust emotion becomes more prevalent in The Monitor news coverage. These findings show us that, although the subject of the health emergency is the same, local and national newspapers describe it in different ways, and the sentiments they convey are also not the same.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the informational value of local news outlets and how they affect insider trading. We hypothesize that local news coverage is a critical channel through which outsiders acquire local information, which restricts insiders’ ability to profit from their information advantage. We argue that a loss of local news coverage increases information opacity faced by outsiders, while making it easier for insiders to seize profitable trading opportunities. Exploring the staggered shutdown of local newspapers, our difference-in-differences estimation presents novel evidence that insiders from closure counties trade more profitably after local newspaper closures, particularly in small firms that lack alternative news sources. Further analyses reaffirm that the post-closure increase in trading profits is unlikely to be wholly driven by regional economic conditions and is likely driven by increased information costs. Our results highlight that local newspapers play a meaningful role in mitigating information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders.Data Availability: Data used in this study are available from the sources identified in the paper.JEL Classifications: G14; G30; L82.

Presidents increasingly bypass the filter of national media and take their message on the road to appeal to local audiences through local news outlets. We examine local newspaper coverage of President George W. Bush in 2003. Presumably, the president would enjoy mostly positive coverage from local newspapers. Yet, we demonstrate substantial variation in local news coverage, with community support for the president being a primary predictor of whether he will receive positive coverage. We also find that stories on the Iraq War contributed to negative coverage, even at the local level. We conclude with commentary on the utility of presidents' local media strategy in light of our findings.

The emergence of a new video marketplace raises questions about the commitment of local TV news organizations to the FCC localism doctrine. Local news coverage at ten Pennsylvania stations in 1992 was content analyzed and compared with 1976 data collected by Adams (1980). Results indicate that stations devoted more coverage to outlying market areas in 1992 than in 1976, but emphasized sensationalism/human interest stories at the expense of local public affairs issues.

There is little research on the tone of local news coverage of the presidency, despite the public's preference for local rather than national news. I use theories of media politics, based primarily on the profit-seeker model of news coverage, to explore the impact of newspaper characteristics, audience preferences, and story characteristics on local newspaper coverage of the presidency. Based on a sample of 288 stories taken from the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, I demonstrate that everyday local newspaper coverage of the presidency is slightly more negative than positive and that audience support for the president, newspaper resources, and corporate ownership affect the tone of local newspaper coverage of the presidency.

The authors investigate whether the news media and the tone of actual ads aired during a political campaign influence people’s perceptions of campaign ad tone. Using data on the content of political advertising, local television news coverage, and local newspaper coverage in nine races in five midwestern states in 2006, the authors discover that perceptions of ad tone respond to both exposure to advertising and exposure to local news media. Both positive and negative advertising drive tone perceptions, and the impact of ad coverage depends not on its volume or mentions of tone but on whether that coverage is framed strategically or not.