Louisiana State University: What Happens When A Newspaper's Opinion Page Ignores National Politics? New Research Finds ...

Press release from Louisiana State University:

September 13, 2021

BATON ROUGE—A Google alert prompted LSU Assistant Professor of Political Communication Joshua
Darr to drop everything else he was working on. From the alert, he read that Julie
Makinen, the executive editor of The Desert Sun newspaper in southern California,
had mentioned one of his studies. In this study, he had found political polarization
increases when a local newspaper closes. In the absence of local news, Americans rely
more heavily on national news sources to make political decisions. And the result
is: “People are more likely to vote for one party up and down the ballot,” Darr said.

Less local news contributed to more polarization.

Intrigued, Makinen decided to conduct her own experiment. She announced her Palm Springs-based
daily newspaper would drop national politics from its opinion page for the month of
July 2019. Her rationale? Move the focus back to home. In lieu of cartoons and op-eds
about the president, Congress, etc., The Desert Sun would devote space to local writers
and issues affecting California, Palm Springs, and the surrounding Coachella Valley.

Immediately, Darr and his study co-authors Matthew Hitt from Colorado State University
and Johanna Dunaway from Texas A&M University knew they wanted to seize the opportunity.
They dropped all other projects. In two weeks, they managed to consult Makinen, design
the study, and secure approvals and funding. Through surveys to gauge political attitudes
and a content analysis to assess changes in coverage, they were able to answer their
research question: When a newspaper increases its emphasis on local issues, can it
help bridge the political gaps in their community?

They found the answer is: yes. Their new book, Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers
Can Slow Polarization, documents this work.

Darr shares findings and implications of this research below.

Q: Much of your research focuses on the relationship between local and national settings,
specifically political knowledge, partisan polarization, and local news. What are
the consequences of inadequate local news and increased reliance on available national
news?

Q: You and your co-authors measure how banning national politics affected topics on
The Desert Sun’s opinion page and the attitudes of people in the Palm Springs area.
What did you find?

Q: What do these results mean for news entities, communities, policy makers, and legislators?

Q: In March 2021, Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and John Kennedy of Louisiana and
Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Ken Buck of Colorado introduced the Journalism
Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA). What impact would this bill, if passed, have?

Darr and his collaborators are interested in replicating and extending this work.
They’ve been in touch with journalism organizations that may want to partner with
them. In the meantime, Darr has been running experiments on the connection between
local news and local identity.

“The crisis in local news seems likely to continue,” Darr said. “And we will keep
trying to figure out what we are losing, why it matters, and what can be done about
it.”

For more information, contact acharbonnet1@lsu.edu.

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LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication ranks among the strongest collegiate communication programs in the country, with
its robust emphasis on media and public affairs. It offers undergraduate degrees in
public relations, journalism, political communication, digital advertising and pre-law,
along with four graduate degree programs: Master of Mass Communication, Ph.D. in Media
and Public Affairs, Certificate of Strategic Communication and a dual MMC/Law degree.
Its public relations students were recently ranked the #1 team in the nation, and
its digital advertising and student media teams frequently earn national recognition.

This press release was produced by Louisiana State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.