Local newspaper decline and political polarization : evidence from a multi-party setting

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dc.contributor.authorELIGER, Fabio
dc.contributor.authorHILBIG, Hanno
dc.contributor.authorRIAZ, Sascha
dc.contributor.authorTILLMANN, Philipp
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-14T09:41:59Z
dc.date.available2025-05-14T09:41:59Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.descriptionPublished online: 23 October 2024
dc.description.abstractHow does the decline of traditional news outlets affect political polarization? We provide novel evidence on this question by examining the link between local newspaper exits, media consumption, and electoral behaviour in a multiparty setting. Our empirical analysis combines a unique panel of all German local newspapers between 1980 and 2009, electoral returns, and an annual media consumption survey of more than 670,000 respondents. Using a difference-in-differences design, we demonstrate that local newspaper exits increase electoral polarization. Additional analysis points to changes in media consumption as the underlying mechanism driving this result: following local news exits, consumers substitute local news with national tabloid news. Our findings extend prior results in the US context to a multiparty setting and shed new light on the causal chain running from changing local news landscapes to electoral behaviour.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationBritish journal of political science, 2024, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 1256-1275
dc.identifier.doi10.1017/S0007123424000243
dc.identifier.endpage1275
dc.identifier.issn0007-1234
dc.identifier.issn1469-2112
dc.identifier.issue4
dc.identifier.startpage1256
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/92640
dc.identifier.volume54
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherCambridge University Press
dc.relation.ispartofBritish journal of political science
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.licenseAttribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectPolarization
dc.subjectLocal news decline
dc.subjectNewspapers
dc.subjectMedia consumption
dc.titleLocal newspaper decline and political polarization : evidence from a multi-party setting
dc.typeArticle
dspace.entity.typePublication
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-8933-0836
person.identifier.other54420
relation.isAuthorOfPublication46bfef0c-bca9-4c26-8aa6-8ccb6ccb6611
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery46bfef0c-bca9-4c26-8aa6-8ccb6ccb6611
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