Abstract
Using data from the 2008 and 2009 Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the United States Census Bureau, this article assesses the year-over-year change in the civic engagement of citizens in America's largest metropolitan areas. Of special interest are Denver and Seattle, where the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer closed during the intervening year. The data from the CPS indicate that civic engagement in Seattle and Denver dropped significantly from 2008 to 2009—a decline that is not consistently replicated over the same time period in other major American cities that did not lose a newspaper. The analysis suggests that this decline may plausibly be attributed to the newspaper closures in Seattle and Denver. This short-term negative effect is concerning, and whether it lasts warrants future attention.
... Notices of public hearings are posted on the state government's website and printed in Maine's major newspapers (Bangor Daily News, Maine Sunday Telegram, and Lewiston Sun Journal) one or two weekends ahead of time. The circulation of these newspapers does not blanket the state, however, and many residents in Maine live in a news desert (Abernathy 2025;Shaker 2014). To increase public participation, the state needs to develop other ways of announcing public hearings. ...
"Maine is known for its progressive approach to environmental policy in part due to the state’s historical dependence on natural resources and rich biodiversity. Mainers engage in local politics: testifying at public hearings, contacting their elected officials, and submitting public comments. Participation helps create policies that reflect the will of the people, ensure that those affected by policies are able to voice their support and concerns, and safeguard against special interest groups dominating policy construction. However, our analysis of the public comments on three recent pieces of environmental legislation—LD 1679, LD 1541, and LD 294—suggest there is room for improvement. We argue that political participation in Maine could be strengthened through greater inclusion of rural and Indigenous populations to ensure that the state continues to lead in environmental policy."
... As local papers are the most trusted information sources in the U.S. 3,4 and fill most of the "critical information needs" (e.g. health, education, emergencies) 5,6 , their loss has been linked to decreased civic engagement, lower political knowledge, and less accountability for elected officials 1,[7][8][9][10][11] . These negative impacts have led some to claim the growth of news deserts (i.e. ...
A growing concern is that as local newspapers disappear, communities lose trusted gatekeepers and develop information voids, creating openings for misinformation to thrive. Previous work has not evaluated whether residents of news deserts have developed different information acquisition habits. We fill this gap by directly comparing information consumption and referral patterns inside and outside of news deserts in a novel dataset of engagement with online media by millions of users on the Edge browser. We find little evidence that those in news deserts consume more low-quality sites or are more likely to be referred to low-quality sites from search engines or social media. We find some evidence that those in news deserts do consume more national news than locations with local media outlets. These results contribute to our understanding of how the loss of local newspapers has impacted online information acquisition.
... Government also comes across more positively in the local press: more local stories about legislators are favorable (Arnold, 2004), and coverage of accomplishments encourages voters to reward performance and vote across party lines to do so (Schaffner, 2006;Trussler, 2021). Local coverage of legislators is crucial for democratic accountability at the local level (Hayes & Lawless, 2021;Shaker, 2014). A strong local news environment helps government perform better, from reduced polarization (Darr et al., 2018;Moskowitz, 2021) to better municipal bond ratings (Gao et al., 2020) and fewer violations by local businesses (Heese, Perez Cavazos, & Peter, 2022), government is more accountable because people know more about its activities when local news organizations are financially healthy and widely used within communities. ...
Local political news is losing consumers over the past decade at a faster rate than other political media, while online news consumption is growing. Previous research shows that local news can slow polarization, encourage political participation, and reduce government and business corruption, but not whether changes over time can affect political attitudes. Is this consequential shift in the media environment associated with changes in Americans’ perceptions of electoral integrity and their system of government? We use a three-wave panel survey from 2012 to 2014 to assess the relationship between changes in self-reported news diets and opinions about American elections and democracy. Switching out of local newspapers is associated with a significant decrease in faith in elections but does not appear to influence support for the broader U.S. system of government. We conclude by discussing the implications of declining local and legacy media news use for Americans’ attitudes toward U.S. elections and democracy in the aftermath of the 2020 elections.
Despite eroding consensus about credible political news sources, much of the public still trusts local media. We assess the emergence, sources, and implications of the trust advantage local news holds over national media. We argue the public now uses a news outlet's local orientation as a shortcut to assess its credibility. In survey experiments, we find unfamiliar news outlets are trusted more when they have a local cue in their name. In surveys where people evaluate digital sources covering their community, this heuristic leads the public to trust unreliable information providers that signal a local focus more than high‐quality sources that do not. Our findings position local media as unique, broadly trusted communicators while also illustrating a logic behind recent efforts to disseminate biased political information by packaging it as local news. More broadly, we show the challenges that arise when the public applies once‐reliable heuristics in changing political circumstances.
A transformation in the political economy of local news provision has led to claims that an increasing number of local areas have become ‘news deserts’ – areas that are poorly served or not served at all by professional and dedicated news services (Abernathy, 2022). Such developments have raised widespread concerns about the future health of local democracy. One aspect of local news’ declining capacity that has received little attention to date is the impact on its role as political institution. This paper first examines the impact of changes on those most closely affected by the reduction or closure of UK local news media outlets – the consumers and sources of local news. Through empirical research in 2021-22, the authors explore Cook’s theory of the news media as political institution (2005), by examining local citizens’ experience of – and attitudes towards – their local news outlets, and the extent to which they believe these continue to perform an institutional role. Second, the paper seeks to explore the extent to which other information services – most notably social media and online communities - substitute for the institutional roles of local news outlets. The paper argues that the diminishing role of local news media as political institution has significant political and democratic implications which are not being addressed by policymakers, who are more concerned with the economic interests of corporate media owners than the broader democratic and societal interests of local communities.
Social media play a pivotal role in disseminating web content, particularly during elections, yet our understanding of the association between demographic factors and political discourse online remains limited. Here, we introduce a unique dataset, DomainDemo, linking domains shared on Twitter (X) with the demographic characteristics of associated users, including age, gender, race, political affiliation, and geolocation, from 2011 to 2022. This new resource was derived from a panel of over 1.5 million Twitter users matched against their U.S. voter registration records, facilitating a better understanding of a decade of information flows on one of the most prominent social media platforms and trends in political and public discourse among registered U.S. voters from different sociodemographic groups. By aggregating user demographic information onto the domains, we derive five metrics that provide critical insights into over 129,000 websites. In particular, the localness and partisan audience metrics quantify the domains' geographical reach and ideological orientation, respectively. These metrics show substantial agreement with existing classifications, suggesting the effectiveness and reliability of DomainDemo's approach.
Although people tend to mobilize around local problems and restrict their political involvement at other times, the political communication literature generally has focused on national politics and elections. This is particularly surprising in investigations of political involvement since it is at the community level that people should feel more efficacious. Also, both mass and interpersonal communication should be more significant locally given their importance in strengthening community ties. The study reported here focuses on these relationships in a community context, with a survey of six inner-city neighborhoods and six suburbs classified on status using location and census data. Results point to a much more positive role for the media in community politics. Those most likely to rely on neighborhood newspapers as sources are less disillusioned with government, suggesting that the most "grassroots" of print media are more efficacious in their impact than the other channels. Also, readership of a daily newspaper is particularly strong as a predictor of both community political involvement and faith in community civic involvement. Results of the macro analysis suggest that urban sprawl may have consequences for how media affect political involvement. In the data here, distance from the center city and stratification are closely tied—the further out the community, the higher its status. Results by neighborhood structure indicate media specialization as well as a greater dependence on media versus interpersonal influence in the political arena. Thus, we see that political involvement and attitudes are more strongly related to reading the daily newspaper in the more distant suburbs than in the center city.
Government interventions in media markets are often criticized for preventing audiences from getting the media products they want. A free press is often asserted to be essential for democracy. The first point is incorrect and the second is inadequate as a policy guide. Part I of this book shows that unique aspects of media products prevent markets from providing for audience desires. Part II shows that four prominent, but different, theories of democracy lead to different conceptions of good journalistic practice, media policy, and proper constitutional principles. Part II makes clear that the choice among democratic theories is crucial for understanding what should be meant by free press. Part III explores international free trade in media products. Contrary to the dominant American position, it shows that Parts I and II's economic and democratic theory justify deviations from free trade in media products.
This study reports readers' perceptions of loss when the the newspaper in Humbolt, Kan., ceased publication after 129 years. Readers did not find that local media alternatives filled the void left by the newspaper's demise.
When it failed to arrive, Oregon subscribers said they missed local news. But they also described an emotional attachment to their newspapers, which could not be quantified.
Do local media contribute to individuals' involvement in a community? The “community integration hypothesis” has long held they do, but a recent test based on a stricter measurement criterion shows the extent of contribution may have been overestimated. Results also suggest some media contribute more than others, and the relative contribution of each medium depends upon the individual's stage of settling into the community. The study is based on a probability telephone survey of 432 respondents.
Many studies of media effects use self-reported news exposure as their key independent variable without establishing its validity. Motivated by anecdotal evidence that people's reports of their own media use can differ considerably from independent assessments, this study examines systematically the accuracy of survey-based self-reports of news exposure. I compare survey estimates to Nielsen estimates, which do not rely on self-reports. Results show severe overreporting of news exposure. Survey estimates of network news exposure follow trends in Nielsen ratings relatively well, but exaggerate exposure by a factor of 3 on average and as much as eightfold for some demographics. It follows that apparent media effects may arise not because of differences in exposure, but because of unknown differences in the accuracy of reporting exposure.