Governance: The Political Science Journal at UNLV
Article Title
The Decline of Local News and its Effect on Polarization
Keywords
Local News; Polarization; media; las vegas; congress
Abstract
In recent decades, local news has seen a sharp decline while political polarization has seen an increase. In this paper, I will analyze how these two trends affect one another. I hypothesize that as local news declines, there will be an increase in polarization. To test this, I use figures on newspaper circulation from Pew Research Center as a proxy for local news as well as Voteview’s polarization scores given to each US Congress. After conducting my data analysis, I found support for my hypothesis. There are statistically significant figures that show that as newspapers in circulation decrease, polarization increases. This research is timely. As the United States becomes more polarized, it is crucial to look for the causes of polarization to combat this issue.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Stanley D.
(2019)
"The Decline of Local News and its Effect on Polarization,"
Governance: The Political Science Journal at UNLV: Vol. 6, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/governance-unlv/vol6/iss2/2