Local News Outlets and Political Participation

Abstract

We investigate how access to local government information affects turnout in municipal elections. We hypothesize that the availability of news focused on local public affairs in an individual's municipality affects her political participation. We anticipate that turnout will be depressed by restricted access to local government news. We test this expectation using survey data from the Los Angeles (California) Designated Market Area (DMA) collected by the Public Policy Institute of California, and the availability of weekly and daily newspapers in municipalities surrounding Los Angeles. We find that absent local news, voters are less likely to turnout. We examine reasons for this and discuss future research to investigate the influence of local news on voting.

Die Stimme des Volkes. Kommunikations- und Meinungsbildungsprozesse bei lokal- und bundespolitischen Entscheidungen

“…Positive Kommunikationswirkungen auf die politische Beteiligung finden sich auch auf lokaler Ebene (Filla & Johnson, 2010;Nicodemus, 2004), die Frage nach Unterschieden in den Medienwirkungen zur nationalen Ebene ist aber offen. Hinsichtlich persönlicher Gespräche sollte der positive Einfluss auf die politische Partizipationsbereitschaft bei lokalen Themen größer sein als bei nationalen Themen.…”

Determinants of Political Participation in Urban Politics: A Los Angeles Case Study

“…For whites, political efficacy is the only statistically significant variable, in a positive direction. Filla and Johnson's (2010) study on voting frequency in Los Angeles County found that income, gender, political interest, and strength of party identification are statistically significant variables. The coefficients for these variables are all positive, and political interest has the largest impact on voting frequency.…”

“…Others postulate that race, marital status, home ownership, and other forms of social connectedness are relevant in measuring participation and voting (Filla and Johnson 2010;Krishna 2002;Leighley and Vedlitz 1999;Marschall 2001). Alvarez and Butterfield (1999) analyze voter turnout rates among Latinos and whites and demonstrate that in Los Angeles County, Latinos do not participate as much as whites with other variables controlled.…”

“…More recently, Filla and Johnson (2010) measure the impact of the availability of daily and weekly newspapers on voting frequency in Los Angeles County. They classify several municipalities in Los Angeles County into two groups based on their access to daily and weekly newspapers.…”

Failed State: Political Corruption and the Collapse of Democracy in Bell, California

“…Filla and Johnson's study of 83 suburban Los Angeles found that voters "who have access to a daily newspaper are more likely to vote than respondents living in communities without newspapers" (686). For Filla and Johnson (2010) "democratic governance is premised upon voter access to information about the problems and opportunities their political community faces, the actions of elected officials, and the policy options available to them" (679).…”