Ninth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Local television news in the United States provides a vital democratic function. As local newspapers disappear across the country, local television news plays an increasingly central role in providing news coverage around issues nearest to its community. 18 million people across the U.S watch local television news on over 6,400 broadcasts every day, far outstripping any other news source. Further, local TV viewers are the most likely voters across all media types. News stories, policy, and politics that have the greatest effect on citizens’ lives are the local ones. However, the local TV broadcast system in the United States has become increasingly consolidated over the last 20 years. Media firms claim that consolidation does not affect content. Until now that has been an impossible claim to examine at scale. Using cutting edge methods in data science, we have created a database that makes that possible. We examined the duplication of news content across 861 stations in all 210 television markets in the U.S. over a three-month period. It is the most comprehensive database of local TV news content in existence. We find that over 27 percent of news content is duplicated. How is that duplication distributed across television markets? Who controls the stations? Are local places losing independent news voices? What are the implications for media policy? As consolidation continues, might stations turn to artificial intelligence to deliver the news?