The Decline of Local News and its Effect on Polarization

Authors

Stanley D. Taylor, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

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