Local TV stations owned by conglomerates increased national politics coverage at the expense of local issues and shifted their ideological slant to the right, according to new research. This trend occurred despite overall declines in viewership.
Using extensive data on programming and audience metrics across multiple markets, researchers tracked changes following ownership shifts. Key findings include:
• A significant increase in national politics coverage after conglomerate acquisition
• A corresponding decrease in local political news content during the same period
• A measurable rightward shift in the ideological balance of local news reporting
• Small but statistically significant declines in viewership across affected markets
These results demonstrate that supply-side factors, particularly corporate ownership decisions, substantially drive trends toward nationalization and polarization in local media. This has important implications for democratic accountability mechanisms.
| Local News and National Politics was authored by Gregory Martin and Josh McCrain. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2019. |
