Internet Competition and Us Newspaper City Government Coverage

Abstract

This study used data from a survey of city government reporters at US metropolitan daily newspapers to test the 2008 Lowrey and Mackay model of occupational competition. The results indicate that as the quality of Internet competition (as perceived by the US city hall reporters) increased, reporters were more likely to report stories they might have missed and were more likely to increase the number of city government stories. This study also suggests that the perceptions of the reporters as well as the perceptions of editors play a role in the reaction to occupational competition and that city government reporters were affected more by the perceived quality of competitors' coverage than by the number of news outlets providing that coverage.