Public Goods and the Press: Implications of Disparities in Local Political News

• In Event: Cities and Local Media: Setting the Urban Policy Agenda

Abstract

Dramatic, decades-long declines in local news has raised alarm bells about democratic accountability in cities and towns where legacy local news outlets are often the only sources of information for the public. But even in its heyday, local news almost never covered most municipal governments. Using text analysis on a large archive of stories published in U.S. newspapers, I identify the cities and towns where local politics is most frequently covered by the press. I show that although decisions about where to prioritize coverage of local politics is broadly consistent with news organizations’ profit incentives, there are striking disparities in access to information about municipal governments. The local press is much more likely to cover politics in larger cities and those with more white and wealthy residents. In cities and towns that the press covers more frequently, local governments also spend more on popular and visible public goods, such as fire protection, policing, parks, and welfare. This suggests that increasing financial pressures on news outlets will have negative implications for local public goods provision that may exacerbate existing inequalities in American democracy.

Author

• Michael Auslen, University of Texas at Austin