Television Reporters' Perceptions of How Television and Newspaper Competition Affects City Hall Coverage

Coulson, David C.; Lacy, Stephen

doi:10.1207/s15327825mcs0602_3

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…They not only provide more political information than television (Druckman 2005), the effect of newspaper reading on voting in local elections is significantly greater than exposure to television news broadcasts (McLeod, Scheufele, and Moy 1999). Local papers also devote more resources to covering city hall than do local television stations (Coulson and Lacy 2003), which are reducing their coverage of local public affairs (Slattery and Hakanen 1994). Last, local papers tend to set the agenda of local broadcast networks (Downie and Kaiser 2002, 64-66).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Press Coverage of Mayoral Candidates

Atkeson

Krebs

2008

Political Research Quarterly

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Some research on gender bias in news coverage of political campaigns indicates that the media portray male and female candidates differently. Research to date, however, has focused only on elections to national or statewide offices, where confounding variables such as party, incumbency, and competitiveness are present. The authors resolve this problem by focusing their analysis of media campaign coverage on nonpartisan, open-seat, and competitive mayoral races. The authors' content analysis of press coverage in six mayoral elections suggests that press coverage is not biased in favor of male candidates. The authors, however, find that the presence of a woman on the ballot expands the range of issue coverage in local campaigns in ways favorable to perceived strengths of female candidates.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Press Coverage of Mayoral Candidates

Atkeson

Krebs

2008

Political Research Quarterly

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“…In fact, robust newspaper attention to local government has been associated with enhanced local government reporting beyond the newspaper itself. In a 1997 survey, television news reporters indicated that strong newspaper competition in their markets inspired enhanced television news coverage of local government (Coulson and Lacy 2003). Television news reporters, it seems, are driven to give more attention to local government when newspaper reporters are doggedly covering city hall.…”

Section: Newspapers and Governmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Consequences of the Endangered Local Watchdog: Newspaper Decline and Mayoral Elections in the United States

Rubado

Jennings

2019

Urban Affairs Review

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Newspapers have faced extreme challenges in recent years due to declining circulation and advertising revenue. This has resulted in newspaper closures, staff cuts, and dramatic changes to the ways many newspapers cover local government, among other topics. This article argues that the loss of professional expertise in coverage of local government has negative consequences for the quality of city politics because citizens become less informed about local policies and elections. We test our theory using an original data set that matches 11 local newspapers in California to the municipalities they cover. The data show that cities served by newspapers with relatively sharp declines in newsroom staffing had, on average, significantly reduced political competition in mayoral races. We also find suggestive evidence that lower staffing levels are associated with lower voter turnout.

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“…These technical and logistical duties can negatively affect news quality and can diminish the time available for long-form journalism activities, such as source development and research (Blankenship, 2016; Higgins-Dobney & Sussman, 2013). Partly because time is limited, local TV reporters generate story ideas from “passive” sources, including police scanners, viewer tips, and other news outlets, more often than newspaper reporters (see, e.g., Coulson and Lacy, 2003; Lewis, 2014). This passive discovery process tends to yield fewer in-depth stories compared to active discovery, during which reporters “dig” for original ideas (McManus, 1994).…”

Section: Local Tv Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting Broadcast News in Context

2017

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Contextual journalism calls for depth of news reporting rather than “just the facts.” A national survey of local television (TV) journalists indicated the increasing popularity of this more comprehensive reporting form. Although news sociologists contend that local TV routines facilitate the production of quick, less substantive stories, TV respondents in the present study highly valued comprehensive, contextual news styles—even more than newspaper journalists. Building on the work of Weaver and colleagues’ “American Journalist” project, TV news workers in this survey preferred contextual roles, such as alerting the public of potential threats and acting in a socially responsible way, but also valued traditional broadcasting roles, such as getting information to the public quickly. TV news roles were compared to those of newspaper journalists to analyze how professionals in different media view their work identities.

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Television Reporters' Perceptions of How Television and Newspaper Competition Affects City Hall Coverage

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

Press Coverage of Mayoral Candidates

Press Coverage of Mayoral Candidates

Political Consequences of the Endangered Local Watchdog: Newspaper Decline and Mayoral Elections in the United States

Putting Broadcast News in Context

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