The expression of localism: Local TV news coverage in the new video marketplace

In Step at the Top? Optimism, Efficacy, and Orientation Among Local Television News Managers

“…However, Coulson et al (2001) and later Riffe and Abdenour (2015), however, used market size to explore beliefs among city hall reporters that their work. The lack of differences due to market reported here may be important, signifying "core" beliefs and values among journalists in news director positions-beliefs and values that are invariant across market context Coulson, Riffe, Lacy, & St. Cyr, 2001;Slattery & Hakanen, 1994;Slattery et al, 1996;Riffe & Abdenour, 2015).…”

“…found smaller stations were more likely to use news "imported" from national and international wire services, demonstrating that advances in satellite technology made these services available even to smaller markets. Other research documented increases in local coverage by stations overall, but a lack of "substantive" coverage of public affairs stories and a higher concentration of sensationalistic/human interest stories like crime and accidents (Slattery & Hakanen, 1994;Slattery, Hakanen, & Doremus, 1996). Additionally, other research found that, no matter the market, television stations within a market produced similar content, particularly regarding traditional "hard" news categories like politics, crime, and public affairs .…”

The Localism Principle in Communications Policymaking and Policy Analysis: Ambiguity, Inconsistency, and Empirical Neglect

“…Similarly, from a political standpoint, locally originated programming need not necessarily address local political issues and concerns. The latter is, in fact, a common finding of the (unfortunately) scant research that has looked beyond geography to actual content in the assessment of localism (see Adams, 1978Adams, , 1980Slattery, Hakanen, & Doremus, 1996). These studies examined not only the overall quantity of locally originated programming, but the quantity of the content within this locally originated programming that dealt with local issues and concerns (thus, essentially treating localism as a two-layered construct), finding that even locally produced news dealt largely with issues outside of the community.…”

WLBT News in the Deregulation Era

“…The drive for profits has also created many good news operations with public interest as their goal. Slattery, Hakanen, and Doremus (1996) write that the resulting competition has led to greater investments in television news resources with technological advances that give more depth and expansion to local news coverage.…”