PERSPECTIVES ON LOCAL NEWS IN DEMOCRACY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STAKEHOLDERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF ROLES AND IMPACTS

This dissertation interrogated theoretical arguments regarding central declines of local newspapers by elevating viewpoints previously omitted: stakeholders who actively participate in political spaces both inside and outside of local and state power structures. This inquiry was conducted in two parts, each with its own method to amplify the breadth and depth of findings.First, a metajournalistic discourse analysis made sense of how of key stakeholders in local news conceptualized the role of journalism and local news in democracy between 2020 and 2022, and detailed the six roles of the press that emerged within discourse, including five traditional roles of the press and one role not typically found, that of a press tasked explicitly with democracy protection. The second empirical inquiry addressed how local political organizers conceptualized the importance of local news to democracy through in-depth interviews. This chapter found organizers at the local level were reluctant to consider that a self-interested and profit-driven news media would even purport to serve an altruistic role in democracy, but said ideally, local news media would serve as civic arbiters and educators that provide information in depth, impactful accountability, and engage an apathetic general citizenry.Findings from these two inquiries were then compared to determine the extent to which these understandings were similar and where they differed—in other words, how theoretical needs and actual needs in a democracy measure up. This endeavor was intended to offer evidence to perhaps decenter local journalistic sources of information in a new media regime, a call that scholars such as Zelizer (2017) and Carlson et al., (2021) have made in considering counternarratives and evolving information-seeking habits. What it instead pointed toward was the need to do more: to disrupt core economic structures and practices in local journalism.Notions about local news’ contributions and hindrances to democracy are important in determining how best to impact local democracy through the allocation of resources. Findings from this dissertation suggest a shift is needed in the conversation—and resources—toward a reimagining of local news organizations and practices to create sustainable and inclusive local news and information systems that capture the attention of an increasingly disengaged public.