Researcher: Local newspaper closures help polarize political views - Entrepreneur Generations

Communities where the local newspaper has shuttered are more politically polarized and often have less influence with their state and national elected officials, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Communication, Elena Watts reports for The Daily Yonder. Communities without newspapers are more likely to be rural. 

Without a local news source, voters are obliged to get their news from national news media outlets that often report news through the lens of Republican-Democratic conflict. And without a trusted local news source to fact check politicians, political parties have more leeway to peddle a biased version of events.  That has contributed to an increase in straight-party ticket voting in counties where local newspapers have closed. Residents in such communities are also more likely to vote based on party affiliation alone, Watts reports. 

“Residents of cities without sources of local news are losing their ability to hold their political representatives accountable in ways that encourage ethical and effective representation,” Johanna Dunaway, professor of communication in the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M and one of the study’s authors, told Watts. “And the more obvious implications of newspaper closures are that residents are becoming less informed about the issues that affect them most and less engaged with local government.”

from The Rural Blog http://bit.ly/2Dl6Dqk Researcher: Local newspaper closures help polarize political views - Entrepreneur Generations

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