Chapter 9: State and Local News Coverage

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. What is the main topic covered by local television news?

A. health care and education

B. local politics

*C. crimes and accidents

D. national politics

2. Local news coverage of elections is mostly about ______.

A. candidate traits and experience

B. candidate policy positions

*C. who is winning or losing the “horse race”

D. what voter groups are likely to support which candidates and why

E. all of these

True/False

1. Local newspapers are dying out across the country; this trend was especially pronounced between 2000 and 2014.

2. Local reporters typically have less education and experience than their national counterparts.

3. Local reporters have less adversarial relationships with local public officials than national correspondents have with officials in national government.

4. State politics tends to get more coverage and better coverage than local politics.

5. When covering national news or crises, local news outlets often use a local angle.

6. Subnational election coverage by local news outlets tends to be regularly provided and of high quality.

7. Heavy local news emphasis on crime has the negative consequence of making audiences overestimate their likelihood of being a victim of crime.

Short Answer

1. What are some of the implications from the changing media grid—the movement away from media market and political boundary overlap?

2. What are the six media styles commonly found among subnational political figures?

3. What are some of the reasons metropolitan journalists cover the inner city while neglecting the surrounding areas?

4. Why does local news lend itself to tabloidization even more than other news?

5. Why is crime news so prevalent?

Essay

1. What are the various reasons state news receives the least amount of attention from journalists and news organizations? Discuss both the news media factors and government institutional factors at play. What are the implications?

2. If all politics is local, how does local coverage of local candidates measure up? What are the implications for local governance and an informed citizenry?