Local News

Question 1

What is Covered More in Local news?

Answer 1

1. Crime
2. Human & Community Interests pieces
3. Campaign Strategy and Horse Race
4. Higher Ballot Races

No fuzz on local news–paradox

Question 2

What is covered less?

Answer 2

1. Regional governments, issue, and policies.

2. Investigations and stories with 2 or more sources.

Question 3

What constitutes quality local news?

Answer 3

1. Hard-news
2. Local & Community relevance
3. Original reporting
4. Authoritative sources
5. Balanced Coverage
6. Issue frames

Higher ratings: correlation study but not casual study Can be reversed

Question 4

Consequences of Change in Local News: Content

Answer 4

1. Stories originally covered often in the news are occurring less frequently. It could be that stories have moved from information-based to story-based.
2. Less watchdog reporting
3. Fewer stories produced
4. Less fact checking
5. Sports: High school to College

Question 5

Consequences of Change in Local News: Citizens

Answer 5

1. Citizens have less information about what is happening locally.
2. People are tuning out
3. Local political news correlates with knowledge of local affairs, community attachment and involvement, so this is going down.

Question 6

Consequences of Change in Local News: Politics

Answer 6

1. There are shocking consequences
2. Cincinnati Post v. Cincinnati Enquirer
   a. Elections are less competitive
   b. Candidates served by C.E. likely to win.
3. Congressmen less likely to serve constituents without policing and coverage of local media

Question 7

Media Markets

Answer 7

1. When a cluster of counties are assigned a media market, this means that they all tend to watch the same TV stations.
2. Media Markets do NOT correlate with district or county lines.
3. This lack of correspondence means some people in different areas may get irrelevant news.

Question 8

Congruency Effects

Answer 8

1. Definition: Refers to the degree of overlap between media market and a district. The more congruent the news, the more overlap.
2. Effects on local news
   - -more localization
   - -more coverage on local congress members as opposed to congress
   - -more candidate advertising
3. Effects on citizens
   - -more knowledgeable about U.S. House candidates and state politics.

Question 9

Orphan Counties

Answer 9

1. Definition: Counties served by media of another state (East Texas, example).
2. Effects
   - -Less interested in politics and local news from receiving irrelevant information.
   - -Lower voter turnout
3. Counter-Effect
   - -Internet allows us to be optimistic about local news.
   - -More people tuning to national news.
   - -Not as worried