Local Media & Agenda Setting

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

Abstract

Last year, over a hundred thousand pedestrians were hit by cars in the United States and around eight thousand died. Decisions by local governments determine where and how often these deaths occur. While deaths often prompt cities to consider pedestrian improvements, responses vary widely. This paper examines the role of the news media in shaping city response to pedestrian fatalities. When does the news media draw attention to these deaths, and how do local governments respond? I first examine coverage of pedestrian fatalities in cities across the United States, comparing local news coverage to government records. In general, deaths of sympathetic or highly-resourced victims receive more coverage. Specifically, incidents that occur closer to newsrooms, during daylight, and involve white or young victims are more likely to receive follow-up coverage. Next, I examine the effect of coverage on local policy. Using public information requests, I obtain data on resource allocation within local transportation departments in ten large cities. Because both policy responsiveness and newsworthiness are independently influenced by factors like public interest, I determine the causal effect of coverage by using the total amount of other crime in a city as an instrumental variable. On days with higher amounts of other crime, crime reporters have less time to spend writing or publishing follow up articles on prior events. Thus, short-term fluctuations in crime affect publication of follow-up articles, independent of potential confounders like victim characteristics. Using this method, I find evidence that city governments increase the priority of pedestrian safety projects in response to local news coverage. Together, these results suggest that the news media influences local government policy and does so in a way that reinforces the priorities of groups who already have influence.

Author

• Julia Bitz Christensen, University of California Berkeley