Study Shows Local Ownership Makes Difference in TV News

[SOURCE: Muskogee (OK) Daily Phoenix, AUTHOR: Cathy Spaulding]
Corporate or local control of a city’s television station can make a difference in what viewers see, a team of Northeastern State University professors said. In a paper, “Chain versus Local Ownership: Toward an investment Model of News Quality,” communication professors David K. Scott and Mike Chanslor examined the quality of television news offered by three Tulsa stations. The paper argues that because local news could be expensive to produce, some news organizations could use generic video feeds or stories produced by the station’s parent chain that Scott and Chanslor contend have “little to no local news value.” “The results of this research offer support to critics who voice concern over the effects of increased concentration of ownership,” Chanslor said. “In this case, the effects of large corporate ownership on local news detrimentally impact the FCC’s public policy goal of localism, news that is part of the vital function of the press.”
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