Research
NSF-Funded Study of Media Localism and Ownership
Ongoing Projects - 2008
While the quality of of media coverage of local affairs and the influence of media ownership structure on that coverage are hotly debated in policy circles, the empirical foundation for that debate is surprisingly slim. To address this need, beginning this Fall an interdisciplinary team of five MSU researchers will initiate the largest study of local media performance to date, examining coverage of local affairs by traditional media and on the internet for selected cities in 100 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The study is funded by NSF for two years at the level of $500,000. The Quello Center will play a major role in this project as the PI is Quello Center Co-Director Steve Wildman and two of the Co-PIs (Professor Stephen Lacy and Professor Emeritus Thomas Baldwin) are Quello Center faculty associates and the project will utilize Quello Center facilities and student research assistants.
