An approach to assessing the robustness of local news provision

This chapter addresses the analytical challenge in local news provision. It presents a multi-level methodological framework for assessing local journalism and the extent to which it addresses communities’ critical information needs. Each media outlet’s homepage serves as its indicator of local news provision. The development of such a method and the accompanying measures provide a valuable analytical tool for news organizations, funders of journalism initiatives, advocacy groups, citizens, and policymakers. From a multivariate standpoint, the authors are primarily interested in whether it is possible to identify those characteristics of individual communities that are significantly related to the robustness of local journalism. The chapter contextualizes this methodological approach within a sequence of calls for methods and measures that could inform public and private efforts to strengthen local journalism. It provides methodological approach and describes the rationales underlying its design. The chapter also describes the types of metrics that can be constructed and analyses that can be conducted with the data.

Duke Scholars

Author Philip Michael Napoli Sanford School of Public Policy