In recent years, there has been a surge in the study of representation and elections in local
politics. Scholars have made progress on many of the empirical barriers that stymied earlier …

The level of journalistic resources dedicated to coverage of local politics is in a long-term
decline in the US news media, with readership shifting to national outlets. We investigate …

While “news deserts” are rhetorically powerful, we argue the concept is deeply problematic
due to its normative presumptions and its descriptive fuzziness. The concern over the loss of …

The scholarly literature suggests that, as elections approach, political tensions intensify, and,
as they pass, tensions return to pre-election levels. Using a massive new dataset of 66,000 …

We present the first longitudinal evidence that declining local political news coverage is
reducing citizen engagement. Drawing on a content analysis of more than 10,000 stories …

Can “urban-centric” local television news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic affect the
behavior of rural residents with lived experiences so different from their “local” news …

Retrospective voting is a crucial component of democratic accountability. A large literature
on retrospective voting in the United States finds that the president's party is rewarded in …

How does competition from online platforms affect the organization, performance, and
editorial choices of newspapers? What are the implications of these changes for the …

Journalism has long been presumed to serve as a check on the powerful, shedding light on
wrongdoing; however, as local newspapers reach market failure, extant theory predicts …

Police, like other bureaucratic agencies, are responsible for collecting and disseminating
policy-relevant data. Nonetheless, critical data, including killings by police, often go …