Perceptions of Partisanship in Local Television News

2022 ◽  
pp. 193124312110725
Author(s):  
William O’Brochta
Keyword(s):  
Television News ◽  
Local News ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Fox News ◽  
Local Television ◽  
News Broadcasts ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Local Television News

People turn to local media for information during crises such as the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). What factors impact media consumers’ decisions about which local television news broadcast to watch? This study argues that media consumers infer the partisanship of local television affiliates — judging local Fox and NBC news broadcasts to be right and left slanted, respectively, based on their perceived associations with Fox News and MSNBC. Using the results from a representative survey of Americans (N = 5,461), the study demonstrates that local Fox and NBC viewers are significantly more likely to watch Fox News or MSNBC. As a result, watching local Fox is associated with less coronavirus risk because media consumers choose local Fox believing that it will align with their existing conservative views. This study demonstrates the importance of the perceptions of local news partisanship in influencing the consumption of critically important local crisis news.

scholarly journals The effect of big-city news on rural America during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (36) ◽  
pp. 22009-22014
Author(s):  
Eunji Kim ◽  
Michael E. Shepherd ◽  
Joshua D. Clinton
Keyword(s):  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Local News ◽  
Rural Residents ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Local Television ◽  
Local Television News ◽  
Big City ◽  
Media Markets ◽  
Survey Responses

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.

Local News, Information, and the Nationalization of U.S. Elections

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
DANIEL J. MOSKOWITZ
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Television News ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Local News ◽  
Local Television ◽  
Local Television News ◽  
Media Markets

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.

Media Markets and Localism: Does Local News en Español Boost Hispanic Voter Turnout?

2009 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 2120-2128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Oberholzer-Gee ◽  
Joel Waldfogel
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Television News ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Television ◽  
The Past ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Local Media ◽  
Local Television News ◽  
Media Markets

In the past decade Americans have increasingly turned their attention to nonlocal information sources, raising concerns about disengagement from local communities. Regulation sometimes seeks to curtail the integration of media markets through the promotion of “localism.” This paper examines the role of local media. We make use of the rapid growth of Hispanic communities in the United States to test whether the presence of local television news affects local civic behavior. We find that Hispanic voter turnout increased by 5 to 10 percentage points, relative to non-Hispanic turnout, in markets where Spanish-language local television news became available. (JEL D72, J15, L82)

scholarly journals Paid family leave on local television news in the United States: Setting the agenda for policy reform.

2021 ◽  
pp. 100821
Author(s):  
Margaret Tait ◽  
Colleen Bogucki ◽  
Laura Baum ◽  
Erika Franklin Fowler ◽  
Jeff Niederdeppe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
Television News ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Leave ◽  
Local Television ◽  
Paid Family Leave ◽  
Local Television News

scholarly journals Stroke Information Reported on Local Television News

Stroke ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1556-1557 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Pribble ◽  
Kenneth M. Goldstein ◽  
Jennifer J. Majersik ◽  
William G. Barsan ◽  
Devin L. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Television News ◽  
Local Television ◽  
Local Television News
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