Communty Structure, Economic Dependency, and News Coverage of Fishing Regulations in New England

• In Event: Journalism and its Communities

Abstract

An under-explored counter-thesis of community structure theory predicts that local newspapers will highlight conflict when it comes in the form of a threat from an outsider group. This study uses content analysis to explore the relationship between community structure and news coverage of federal fishing regulations in New England, finding that local newspapers were more likely to present anti-regulatory points of view and lay blame on outsiders than metropolitan newspapers.

Authors

• Suzannah Evans, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Daniel Riffe, U of North Carolina