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Although media professionals use production value to refer to technical aspects of program quality, evidence suggests that viewers are not adept at recognizing this property of content. Nonetheless, broadcasters are attempting to differentiate news product based on technical dimensions. To test the utility of this strategy, this experiment examined how production value impacts perceived technical quality, credibility, and economic value across two age cohorts. Viewers recognized variation in production value and judged stories high in production value as more credible than identical stories low in production value. However, they placed no greater value on high production value content.

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This article addresses the structural changes in the local broadcast television, radio, and daily newspaper industries in small media markets. Specifically, the study explores the consequences of shifting from a managed structure of regulation to an open-market structure of deregulation in markets with a population of 125,000 or less. Overall, the statistical analysis suggests a limited impact on the number of local owners when considering the gradual change from regulation to deregulation. However, the analysis suggests that there has been a negative impact on ownership diversity in some local media industries in the small markets since the Telecommunications Act of 1996.