Local Media Ownership and Viewpoint Diversity in Local Television News

This study proposes a theory-driven, market-based measure of viewpoint diversity in local television news. It then calculates this viewpoint diversity metric using a panel dataset of local television ratings. Finally, an econometric model is used to determine whether viewpoint diversity is associated with local media market ownership structure. The estimated elasticities of viewpoint diversity with respect to media ownership variables are very close to zero.