News Media Coverage of City Governments in 2009 - Quello Center ...

News Media Coverage of City Governments in 2009
Thomas Baldwin, Daniel Bergan, Fred Fico,
Stephen Lacy, and Steven S. Wildman
Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law
Michigan State University
July 30, 2010
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. SES - 0819519.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the National Science
Foundation.
The authors thank Paul Zube, Allison Eden, Miron Varouhakis and Tithi
Chattopadhyay for their essential assistance in the project.

Executive Summary
This study examined news coverage and commentary about city government by
daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, television, cable, radio and citizen journalism
sites in 98 metropolitan central cities and 77 suburban cities. The results show that city
government news continues to be a mainstay of local news coverage in most cities with
news coverage, and that the bulk of that coverage continues to come from daily and
weekly newspapers.
Generally, coverage of central cities differed from coverage of suburban cities.
Few television stories addressed suburban city government, and suburban cities were
far more reliant on weekly newspapers than dailies. Central city coverage was more
likely to address crimes and courts, accidents and disasters, and business than was
suburban city coverage. Overall, suburban coverage was more likely to address city
government, human interest and community news, and education than was central
cities coverage.
Topics in city government coverage varied in importance, but the most heavily
covered topics were city budgets and taxes, government meetings, the relationship
between city government and business, and safety issues. The most commonly used
sources in the news stories were local government officials, followed by business
people, and ordinary citizens.
i

News Media Coverage of City Government in 2009
The majority of U.S. news outlets emphasize local news coverage, which reflects the
decentralized system of government in the United States. This local coverage also
results from the inherent connection between news coverage and politics, which is
rooted in the foundation of American journalism. Research has established the strong
relationship between political interest and news interest. This project was funded by
the National Science Foundation to measure the nature and extent of local government
coverage and to examine the factors that predict variation in coverage among cities.
This report provides a description of a small portion of the larger content
analysis that is central to the study and includes news and opinion content about local
government for the central cities and 77 suburban cities in 98 Metropolitan Statistical
Areas (MSAs). The data start with general topics covered by daily newspapers, weekly
newspapers, broadcast television, cable television, news/talk radio, non-news radio,
citizen news sites and citizen blogs in central and suburban cities. City government
news and opinion coverage is then examined in more detail for number and types of
sources and topics of city government coverage.
The content analyzed here came from two days for each city between February
1, 2009 and May 2, 2009. The days were selected to be the day of and the day after a
randomly selected regular city council meeting. The dates for meetings were selected
from listed dates on cities’ Web sites and from meeting dates supplied by city officials
when they were telephoned. However, the listed meetings did not always occur as
scheduled (See Method section). In some cases, there were just no stories about city
1

government on the selected days. Of the original sample of 120 central MSA cities, 21
did not have a city council meeting on the selected date and one city had no content
available for the date. Of the 119 suburban cities, seven did not have a city council
meeting that day, and 35 did not have any stories in any of the news outlets about the
cities on the selected dates. As a result, the sample analyzed here included news from
98 MSA central cities and 77 suburban cities from the original 120 MSAs.
General Topics
For the selected dates, 389 news outlets provided 6,042 local stories for the 98
central cities (an average of 61.6 news and opinion items per city) and 769 local stories
for the 77 suburban cities (an average of about 10 items per suburban city).
Table 1 provides a breakdown of stories by type of city and story topics. For
central cities, city government was not as high a priority as crimes and courts, which
received the highest proportion of stories at 25.1%. The second most covered topic was
business (18.4%), followed by city government (18%) and human interest and
community news (17.8%). If city, county and regional government are summed, the
local government coverage equals 21.9%, and if crimes and courts are summed with
accidents and disasters, 33.5% of the items were about public safety types of events.
Education received limited coverage with 5.8% of the items.
Table 1
Topic of Story by Type of City
Story Topic
Type of City
Central City Suburban City
City Government 18.0% 24.1%
County Government 3.4% 2.3%
Regional Government 0.5% 0.5%
2

Education 5.8% 10.0%
Crimes & Courts 25.1% 21.7%
Accidents & Disasters 8.4% 3.9%
Human Interest & Community 17.8% 24.1%
Business 18.4% 12.1%
All Else 2.5% 1.3%
N 6,042 769
All Government 21.9% 26.9%
All Crime, Courts,
Accidents & Disasters
33.5% 25.6%
News and opinion items about suburban cities differed from those about central
cities in the order of topic emphasis. City government and human interest/community
news tied for most coverage with 24.1% each of the 769 items. If city, county and
regional government items are summed, they accounted for 26.9% of the items, which
was a higher proportion than found for central cities. The third highest covered topic
was crimes and courts with 21.7%, and if this topic were summed with accidents and
disasters, the total equals 25.6% of all items. Business had a smaller proportion of
coverage than found in central cities with 12.1%, and education had a higher
proportion with 10%.
If the allocation of news and opinion space represents the priorities of news
outlets, then news outlet mangers value government, human interest/community and
education coverage in suburbs, while they value crime, courts, accidents, disasters,
government and business coverage in central city coverage. Crime and courts receive a
great deal of attention in both types of cities, but the coverage was greater for central
cities. Human interest and community coverage were important in news coverage of
both types of cities, but the coverage was greater for suburban cities. These
3

distributions may reflect differences in the relative frequencies of the different types of
events within the two types of cities. Larger cities typically have more crimes and
accidents and are the headquarters of more businesses. Further, media in these cities
cover many political units and reach a broad audience. Crime, accident and business
types of stories may be deemed of more universal interest than stories focused on a
specific government body in a particular geographic context.
Media Coverage of General Topics
Table 2 breaks down the item topics by medium. Because of the low numbers of
cable and citizen journalism (both news sites and blogs sites) items, the eight types of
media were reduced to four – newspapers, television (cable and broadcast), radio
(news/talk and non-news formats) and citizen journalism (blogs and news sites). For
the 6,810 news and opinion items, 47% were published in daily and weekly
newspapers, 42% ran on television, 8% were broadcast on radio, and 3% were posted
on citizen journalism sites. Consistent with prior Project for Excellence in Journalism
(http://www.journalism.org/) research, newspapers covered city government to a
greater degree than other types of media. The five topics emphasized by newspapers in
order were city government (24.5%), human interest/community news (24.1%),
crimes and courts (17.8%), business (16.8%), and education (8.7%). The five topics
emphasized by television in order were crimes and courts (32.4%), business (18.2%),
human interest/community news (13%), city government (12.9%), and accident and
disasters (12.2%).
Table 2
Type of Story By Type of Medium
4

Type of Medium
Type of Story
Citizen Total
Newspaper Television Radio
Journalism
City Government 24.5% 12.9% 16.6% 16.5% 18.7%
County Government 2.0% 4.0% 5.7% 6.1% 3.3%
Regional Government 0.4% 0.6% 0.7% 0.5% 0.5%
Education 8.7% 4.1% 5.3% 3.3% 6.3%
Crimes/Courts 17.8% 32.4% 29.3% 14.6% 24.7%
Accident/Disasters 4.1% 12.2% 9.9% 3.3% 7.9%
Human/Community
Interest
24.1% 13.0% 12.2% 27.4% 18.5%
Business 16.8% 18.2% 17.3% 23.6% 17.5%
All Else 1.7% 2.8% 2.9% 4.7% 2.3%
N 3,185 2,870 543 212 6,810
Radio did not cover city government to the degree newspapers did, but they
provided a higher proportion of coverage than television. The five topics emphasized
by radio are similar to television’s rankings: crimes and courts (29.3%), business
(17.3%), city government (16.6%), human interest/community news (12.2%), and
accident and disasters (9.9%). Citizen journalism sites fell between newspaper and
broadcast outlets in their emphasis. The top five rankings were human
interest/community news (27.4%), business (23.6%), city government (16.5%), crimes
and courts (16.5%), and county government (6.1%).
The variation in topic emphasis among newspapers, television, radio, and citizen
journalism indicates that news outlets in these cities provided a diversity of coverage
that created choice for consumers. The most frequently covered topic for newspapers
was local city government; for television and radio, it was crimes and courts; for citizen
journalism sites, it was human interest. Other than the similarities between television
and radio, the different types of media provide different news topic agendas.
5

Originators of General Topics Items
Table 3 breaks down the content by medium and type of person who created the
content, which included staff (people who work at the outlet), news/opinion service
(e.g., Associated Press), creators for the online site (single-author blogs), local
submission (local people contributed the material), and can’t tell (content without
bylines or any indication of the source.) There was no significant difference between
newspapers (81.1%) and television (80.8%) when it came to staff prepared content.
About 74.8% of radio items and 78.8% of citizen news items came from staff. The
differences between newspapers and radio and television and radio were statistically
significant at a p < .05 level, but the differences between newspapers and citizen
journalism and television and citizen journalism were not. This suggests a greater
degree of formal organizational affiliation than might have been expected for citizen
journalism sites. And across all media, only small proportions of content are
attributable to local citizen submissions.
Table 3
Originator by Type of Medium
Type of Medium
Originator
Citizen Total
Newspaper Television Radio
Journalism
Staff 81.1% 80.8% 74.8% 78.8% 80.4%
News/Opinion Service 2.3% 12.6% 23.2% 6.1% 8.4%
Creator Online Site N/A N/A N/A 1.4% >0.1%
Local submission* 5.9% 0.3% 0.0% 3.3% 3.0%
Can’t Tell 10.7%** 6.3% 2.0% 10.4% 8.1%
N 3,185 2,870 543 212 6,810
* Local submission articles were those submitted by people who had no official connection with
the news organizations. These were typically readers or other members of the community.
** The bulk of can’t tell stories were in weekly newspapers. The daily percentage was 3% of 2,179
stories, and the weekly percentage was 27.4% of 1,006 stories.
6

Perhaps the most interesting result from Table 3 is the high proportion of stories
with no identifiable creator. Of the 1,006 weekly newspaper items, 27.4% provided no
way of knowing who created the content. The figure was 10.4% for citizen journalism
items, 6.3% for television items, 3% for daily newspapers, and 2% for radio items. One
of the basic tenets of independent journalism is that readers should be able to evaluate
the news and opinion by knowing who created the content. This was not the case for
8.1% of the 6,810 items analyzed. It’s not clear why weekly newspapers had such a
high proportion of unidentified news and opinion items, but historically, some weeklies
have depended heavily on press releases for content.
Data from Table 3 also show that radio (23.2%) and television (12.6%) were
much more dependent on wire and news service for local coverage than citizen
journalism sites (6.1%) and newspapers (2.3%). These differences were statistically
significant at a p < .05 level. Given that most of these cities did not have wire service
reporters stationed in them, these data suggest that the broadcast stations could be
using stories first published by newspapers and picked up by Associated Press. This is
consistent with previous research by the Project for Excellence in Journalism
(http://www.journalism.org/node/18897). These data also show that the television
and radio sites had few items contributed by local citizens and that print copies of
newspapers had a higher proportion of items submitted by local people (5.9%) than did
citizen journalism sites (3.3%).
City Government Stories
7

Of the 6,810 local items for the two selected dates, 1,206 were about city
government. Table 4 shows the breakdown of these stories among eight types of city
government items. Most stories had more than one topic, and all topics were coded as
being present or not in the stories. However, as noted above, not all of these stories
actually came from dates when a city council met. The first two columns in Table 4
allows a comparison of stories that ran on the day of and day after a city’s city council
meeting with those that ran on days not related to city council meetings.
Table 4
Percentage of City Government Stories By Topics
(Columns do not sum to zero because stories could have more than one topic.)
Non-city
Council Dates
City Council
Related Dates*
Stories Uniquely
about Topic
(% of stories from
City Council dates
including topic)
Government
Meeting**
26.9%
(77)
43.4%
(399)
17.5%
Budget and
Taxes**
39.5%
(113)
45.9%
(421)
15.7%
Business**
24.1%
(69)
32.1%
(294)
17.0%
Safety
21.9%
(59)
22.8%
(210)
28.1%
General
Government
21%
(60)
15.3%
(143)
70.6%
Elections
15%
(43)
9.5%
(87)
44.8%
Oversight
4.2%
(12)
7.4%
(67)
47.8%
Studies
3.5%
(10)
2.9%
(27)
3.7%
N 286 920
* City council-related dates were the days of a city council meeting and the days after a
city council meeting. Non-city council dates where days selected in error that were
thought to have city council meetings but did not.
** The difference between the city council-related dates figure and the non-city council
dates figure is statistically significant at the p < .05 level.
8

The dates when a city council actually met had a higher percentage of city
government stories (43.3%) devoted to meetings than the dates when a council
meeting was not held (26.9%). These data suggest that news media continue to publish
news from many, but not all, government meetings. In this data set, there were 467
government-meeting stories for 389 news outlets.
However, the most reported topic was budget and taxes, which occurred in
45.9% of the stories from the date the city council met and 39.5% from the dates when
there was no meeting. Businesses and safety were the next most frequently covered
topics and the relative frequency with which safety was covered was statistically
indistinguishable for city council-related dates and non-city council dates.
Most of the articles included multiple topics. The last column in Table 4 has the
percentage of articles by government topic for which this was the only topic covered.
The three most common topics (government meetings, budget and taxes, and business)
were among the least likely to appear as the only topic in a story. This reflected the
likelihood that city council meetings often involve budgets and taxes, as well as
business issues. The most likely government topic to appear as a single topic was
general government, which were stories that did not fit into the other categories. Of all
stories with general government in the story (143), 76.4% were only about general
government. Of all stories with election topics, 46.2% only dealt with elections, and of
all the stories about government oversight, 46.8% only dealt with oversight.
Coverage of MSA Central and Suburban City Government
The sample was developed to allow a comparison of coverage for central cities
and suburban cities. Table 5 provides a breakdown of news stories about central cities
9

and suburban cities by type of media along with the numbers of news outlets and the
average number of stories per outlet. Combined the 389 news outlets produced 929
news stories on these two days about central city governments and 141 news articles
about suburban governments.
Table 5
News Stories by Type of Outlet and Type of City
No. of Outlets Central City Suburban City
with Stories Number Mean Number Mean
Television 152 337 2.21 26 0.17
Radio 54 78 1.44 9 0.16
Citizen Journalism 19 24 1.26 1 0.04
Daily Newspapers 114 383 3.36 46 0.40
Weekly Newspapers 50 107 2.14 59 1.18
Total 389 929 2.39 141 0.36
As one might expect, city government received far more coverage in central than
in suburban cities. The news media generated an average of 2.39 stories per city about
central city governments but only .36 stories per suburban city. Daily newspapers
dominated city government coverage of central cities with an average of 3.36 articles
per city for the two days, compared to an average of 2.21 stories for television stations
and 2.14 for weekly newspapers. Television, radio and citizen journalism sites
averaged more than one story for the two days
Coverage of suburban city government was provided primarily by weekly
newspapers, which published an average of 1.18 city government articles per city
during the two days. Dailies averaged .4 articles per suburban city for the two days. The
152 television stations provided only 26 city government stories for the 77 suburbs and
10

78 radio stations only provided 9 city government stories. The 19 citizen journalism
sites had only one story for all 77 suburban cities for the two days.
An interesting question is just which medium provided the most city
government news articles for the two types of cities. Table 6 breaks down the articles
by central cities and suburbs. The large central cities were more likely than suburbs to
have city government coverage by each of the eight types of media. All eight media
types provided at least some coverage of one or more central cities. However, no
suburban city government coverage was provided by citizen blogs and cable news.
Table 6
Percentage of City Government News Stories by News Media and Type of City
(Numbers of stories in parenthesis.)
Central City Suburban City Total
41.5%
33.6%
40.4%
Daily Newspapers
(381)
(48)
(429)
11.6%
41.3%
15.6%
Weekly Newspapers
(107)
(59)
(166)
35.5%
18.2%
33.5%
Broadcast TV
(329)
(26)
(355)
1.0%
0.0%
1.0%
Cable TV
(8)
(0)
(8)
5.3%
3.5%
5.1%
News/Talk Radio
(49)
(5)
(54)
3.1%
2.8%
3.1%
Non-News Radio
(29)
(4)
(33)
1.6%
0.7%
1.5%
Citizen News Sites
(15)
(1)
(16)
1.1%
0.0%
1.0%
Citizen Blog Sites
(10)
(0)
(10)
Total number 928 143 1,061
Daily newspapers generated the highest percentage of city government coverage
in central cities with 41.5% of all items. For suburban cities, weekly newspaper had the
highest percentage with 41.3%. The two types of cities also differed in the second most
11

prolific medium. For central cities, broadcast television produced 35.5% of the items,
and for suburbs, daily newspapers generated 33.6% of the items. Only 26 of the 143
items about suburban city government (18.2%) were provided by broadcast television.
Overall, the data in Table 6 indicate that the for all cities, the dominant providers
of news and opinion about city government were daily newspapers, weekly newspapers
and broadcast television. These three media generated 88.6% of all items about central
city governments and 93% of all items about suburban city governments. Radio (of
both types) played a minor role in both types of cities, providing 8.4% of items about
central city government and 6.3% of items about suburban city government.
Finally, for all news media covering all city types, cable TV outlets provided the
least coverage, followed by citizen blogs and citizen news sites. This finding should give
significant pause to those who believe that the ¡°new media¡± will fill any gaps left by
the ¡°old media.¡±
Sourcing in City Government Stories
Tables 7 and 8 concern the number and diversity of sources used in the city
government stories. The mean number of sources per story was calculated by adding
the total number of unique sources, whatever their type, and diving by the total number
of stories. The diversity index was determined by assessing how many of the 15
categories of sources were actually used in a story. Eight of these were types of human
sources (e.g. local officials, business people, etc.) and seven were non-human sources
(e.g., document, press releases, etc.). Each of these types of sources was coded as
present (1) or absent (0) in the story. It did not matter how often the type of source
appeared in a story. To calculate the diversity index, the types of sources were
12

summed, which created an index that ran from zero (no sources) to 15 (all types of
sources present). The greater the number, the more diverse were the types of sources
in the stories.
Table 7 presents the average number of sources and the average diversity index
for news and opinion articles about city government. The average number of sources
ranged from a high of 3.11 in the 19 citizen news site articles to a low of 0.86 in the 14
citizen blog sites articles. In more traditional news media, items in daily newspapers
(average = 2.66) and weekly newspapers (average = 2.01) carried more sources than
electronic media. Broadcast television stories averaged 1.91 sources, and non-news and
talk radio stations averaged 1.59 sources. Trailing were the eight cable television
stories that averaged 1.25 sources and news/talk radio that averaged 1.22 sources. In
general, the more sources a story had, the more diverse it tended to be.
Table 7
Average Sources and Source Diversity Index Per City Government News or Opinion
Article by Medium
(Number of stories in parentheses)
Mean Story Sources
Mean Diversity Index
Daily Newspaper (529) 2.66 1.47
Weekly Newspaper (206) 2.01 1.21
Broadcast TV (356) 1.91 1.40
Cable TV (8) 1.25 1.25
News/Talk Radio (54) 1.22 1.09
Non-News/Talk Radio (34) 1.59 1.21
Citizen News Site (19) 3.11 1.79
Citizen Blog Site (14) 0.86 0.86
NOTE: The distributions for story sources and diversity index are both statistically
significant.
13

The number of sources in a story is related to its length in words and time.
Measured in terms of content delivered, electronic media typically devote less time to a
story than newspapers do space. But even the daily newspaper average of 2.66 means a
limited number of sources for government stories.
The average diversity index showed some variation, with daily newspapers
again averaging a slightly higher average index (1.47) than broadcast television (1.40).
However, citizen news sites had the highest average among all types of outlets at 1.79.
The lowest average was with citizen blogs (0.86), which makes sense because most
blogs are opinion pieces. Weekly newspapers, non-talk radio and cable television had
roughly the same diversity index.
Overall, the average diversity index suggests that the types of sources used are
not very diverse. An index under 2 means the average news and opinion article had
fewer that two different types of sources.
Table 8 shows the sources and diversity index just for news stories, and the
average number and diversity of sources was higher for some media when the opinion
items were removed from the data. The average did not change for broadcast television,
cable television and news/talk radio because these media did not run opinion items on
these days. The average number of sources and diversity index for daily newspapers
increased to 3.09 and 1.67 from 2.66 and 1.47, respectively, while average number of
sources and diversity index increased to 2.19 and 1.32 from 2.01 and 1.21, respectively,
for weekly newspapers. This result indicates that opinion items generally use fewer
sources than do news items.
14

Table 8
Average Sources and Source Diversity Index Per City Government News
Article by Medium
(Number of stories in parentheses)
Mean Story Sources
Mean Diversity Index
Daily Newspaper (429) 3.09 1.67
Weekly Newspaper (166) 2.19 1.32
Broadcast TV (355) 1.91 1.40
Cable TV (8) 1.25 1.25
News/Talk Radio (54) 1.22 1.09
Non-News/Talk Radio (33) 1.48 1.15
Citizen News Site (15) 3.80 2.13
Citizen Blog Site (10) 0.90 0.90
Summary
This study examined news coverage and commentary about city government by
daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, television, cable, radio and citizen journalism
sites in 98 metropolitan central cities and 77 suburban cities. The results show that city
government news continues to be a mainstay of local news coverage in most cities, and
that the bulk of that coverage continues to come from daily and weekly newspapers.
However, this sample was selected to have a high probability of finding city government
news because the dates for each city were the day of and the day after a city council
meeting. Topics in city government coverage varied in importance but the most heavily
covered topics were city budgets and taxes, government meetings, the relationship
between city government and business, and safety issues. The most commonly used
sources in the news stories were local government officials, followed by business
15

people, and ordinary citizens. Coverage of central cities differed from coverage of
suburban cities. Few television stories addressed suburban city government, and
suburban cities were far more reliant on weekly newspapers than dailies. Overall,
suburban coverage was more likely to address city government, human interest and
community news, and education than was central cities coverage. Central city coverage
was more likely to address crimes and courts, accidents and disasters, and business
than was suburban city coverage.
Table 1
Topic of Story by Type of City
Type of City
Central City
Suburban City
Story Topic
City Government 18.0% 24.1%
County Government 3.4% 2.3%
Regional Government 0.5% 0.5%
Education 5.8% 10.0%
Crimes & Courts 25.1% 21.7%
Accidents & Disasters 8.4% 3.9%
16

Human Interest & 17.8% 24.1%
Community
Business 18.4% 12.1%
All Else 2.5% 1.3%
N 6,042 769
All Government 21.9% 26.9%
All Crime, Courts,
Accidents & Disasters 33.5% 25.6%
Table 2
Type of Story By Type of Medium
Newspaper Television Radio Citizen Total
Journalism
City Government 24.5% 12.9% 16.6% 16.5% 18.7%
County Government 2.0% 4.0% 5.7% 6.1% 3.3%
Regional Government .4% .6% .7% .5% .5%
Education 8.7% 4.1% 5.3% 3.3% 6.3%
Crimes/Courts 17.8% 32.4% 29.3% 14.6% 24.7%
Accident/Disasters 4.1% 12.2% 9.9% 3.3% 7.9%
17

Human/Community 24.1% 13.0% 12.2% 27.4% 18.5%
Interest
Business 16.8% 18.2% 17.3% 23.6% 17.5%
All Else 1.7% 2.8% 2.9% 4.7% 2.3%
N 3,185 2,870 543 212 6,810
Originator
Table 3
Originator by Type of Medium
Type of Medium
Newspaper Television Radio Citizen Journalism Total
Staff 81.1% 80.8% 74.8% 78.8% 80.4%
News/Opinion Service 2.3% 12.6% 23.2% 6.1% 8.4%
Creator Online Site N/A N/A N/A 1.4% >0.1%
Local submission * 5.9% 0.3% 0.0% 3.3% 3.0%
Can’t Tell 10.7% ** 6.3% 2.0% 10.4% 8.1%
18

N 3,185 2,870 543 212 6,810
* Local submission articles were those submitted by people who had no official connection
with the news organizations. These were typically readers or other members of the community.
** The bulk of can’t tell stories were in weekly newspapers. The daily percentage was 3% of
2,179 stories, and the weekly percentage was 27.4% of 1,006 stories.
Table 4
Percentage of City Government Stories By Topics
(Columns do not sum to zero because stories could have more than one topic.)
Non-city City Council Stories Uniquely
Council Related Dates * about Topic
Dates
(% of stories
from City
Council dates
including topic)
Government ** 26.9% 43.4% 17.5%
Meeting (77) (399)
Budget and 39.5% 45.9% 15.7%
Taxes ** (113) (421)
19

Business ** 24.1% 32.1% 17.0%
(69) (294)
Safety 21.9% 22.8% 28.1%
(59) (210)
General 21.0% 15.3% 70.6%
Govt (60) (143)
Elections 15.0% 9.5% 44.8%
(43) (87)
Oversight 4.2% 7.4% 47.8%
(12) (67)
Studies 3.5% 2.9% 3.7%
(10) (27)
N 286 920
* City council-related dates were the days of a city council meeting and the days
after a city council meeting. Non-city council dates where days selected in error that
were thought to have city council meetings but did not.
** The difference between the city council-related dates figure and the non-city council dates
figure is statistically significant at the p < .05 level.
Table 5
News Stories by Type of Outlet and Type of City
No. of Outlets Central City Suburban City
with Stories Number Mean Number Mean
Television 152 337 2.21 26 0.17
Radio 54 78 1.44 9 0.16
Citizen Journalism 19 24 1.26 1 0.04
Daily Newspapers 114 383 3.36 46 0.40
Weekly Newspapers 50 107 2.14 59 1.18
Total 389 929 2.39 141 0.36
20

Table 6
Percentage of City Government News Stories by News Media and Type of City
(Numbers of stories in parenthesis.)
Central City Suburban City Total
Daily Newspapers 41.5% 33.6% 40.4%
(381) (48) (429)
Weekly Newspapers 11.6% 41.3% 15.6%
(107) (59) (166)
Broadcast TV 35.5% 18.2% 33.5%
(329) (26) (355)
Cable TV 1.0% 0.0% 1.0%
( 8) (0) (8)
News/Talk Radio 5.3% 3.5% 5.1%
(49) (5) (54)
Non-News Radio 3.1% 2.8% 3.1%
(29) (4) (33)
Citizen News Sites 1.6% 0.7% 1.5%
(15) (1) (16)
Citizen Blog Sites 1.1% 0.0% 1.0%
(10) (0) (10)
Total number 928 143 1,061
22

Table 7
Average Sources and Source Diversity Index Per City Government News or Opinion
Article by Medium
(Number of stories in parentheses)
Mean Story Sources
Mean Diversity Index
Daily Newspaper (529) 2.66 1.47
Weekly Newspaper (206) 2.01 1.21
Broadcast TV (356) 1.91 1.40
Cable TV (8) 1.25 1.25
News/Talk Radio (54) 1.22 1.09
Non-News/Talk Radio (34) 1.59 1.21
Citizen News Site (19) 3.11 1.79
Citizen Blog Site (14) .86 .86
NOTE: The distributions for story sources and diversity index are both statistically significant.
23

Table 8
Average Sources and Source Diversity Index Per City Government News
Article by Medium
(Number of stories in parentheses)
Mean Story Sources
Mean Diversity Index
Daily Newspaper (429) 3.09 1.67
Weekly Newspaper (166) 2.19 1.32
Broadcast TV (355) 1.91 1.40
Cable TV (8) 1.25 1.25
News/Talk Radio (54) 1.22 1.09
Non-News/Talk Radio (33) 1.48 1.15
Citizen News Site (15) 3.80 2.13
Citizen Blog Site (10) .90 .90
NOTE: The distributions for story sources and diversity index are both statistically significant.
24

Method Section
Sampling
The goal of the project was to examine the nature of news media coverage of city
government and to identify factors that could explain variations in that coverage across
cities. This required random sampling both cities and content.
City Sampling
Because the goal was to study coverage by a range of news media, the sample
concentrated on Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Within the areas, television,
radio and citizen journalism sites are most likely to provide news coverage of
governments because larger markets attract more news outlets. MSAs are defined by
the U.S. Census Bureau. The size of central cities (the large cities that serve as the hub
for such areas) and the size and number of suburban cities within MSAs varies. In order
to capture this variance, the sample of cities consists of randomly selected central cities
and suburbs of the central cities.
The 363 MSAs were divided into four groups on the basis of population rankings.
Large central cities were those ranked between 1 and 50. Medium large central cities
were those ranked between 51 and 100. Medium central cities were ranked between
101 and 200, and small central cities were ranked between 201 and 363. Within each
group, 30 cities were randomly selected for a total of 120 central cities.
In order to examine the coverage of suburban cities, one incorporated suburb
was selected for each of the 120 MSAs representing the central cities. To create
variance in the population size of suburbs, two types of suburbs were selected. Large
suburbs were the largest population suburbs in the MSA, and medium suburbs were
25

those that were approximately half the size of the largest suburb. Whether the suburb
for a given central city was large or small was determined by selection of a random
starting point in the list of central cities and then alternating large and medium
suburbs. The result was 119 suburbs. Midland, Texas, had no other incorporated city
within its MSA. Suburbs were identified using a variety of atlases and Web sites.
Content sampling
Sampling content typically involves the selection of media outlets, a timeframe
and the type of content to be sampled during that period.
Because this project is about city council coverage, we limited the initial selected
content to news coverage about events, issues and people within the MSA. This was
defined as news and opinion that related to cities, counties and regional (intercounty
and intercity) relationships within the MSA. This excluded news and opinion that dealt
with routine sports material, routine weather material, entertainment (e.g., plays),
celebrities (their lives), state government, national and international news with no
reference to local issues. When doubt existed in the initial identification of items, the
items were retained until the coding procedure when the research team could make a
decision about the appropriateness of individual items.
In an effort to be complete, content was collected from all news outlets within
the area that carried local news as defined above. The outlets were identified through
the use of a variety of online and printed directories and lists of daily newspapers,
weekly newspapers, television stations, cable news operations, radio stations (both
news/talk and non-news/talk), citizen journalism news sites and citizen journalism
blogs. A news outlet was only included in the final data analysis if it carried local news.
26

For example, some radio stations only carried news service material that did not deal
with local news and opinion. These outlets were not included.
With regard to timeframe, two types of samples were selected within the
thirteen-week period between Februay1 and May 2, 2009. The first sample, which is the
subject of this report, involved the selection of a city council meeting date for each city.
The day of the meeting and the day after the meeting were examined because it was
assumed that a city council meeting might generate city government news. The city
council dates were determined in December 2008 by examining city Web sites and by
contacting the cities that did not have Web sites. It turned out that dates planned for
city council meetings do not necessarily have city council meeting. This could be due to
mistakes on Web sites or changes in plans. It appears that some city governments
create lists of possible meetings dates and adjust as needed. This turned out to be
fortuitous because the inclusion of cities in this sample that did not have city council
meetings on the identified date allowed the testing of the assumption that such dates
would generate more city government stories.
The second sample was a constructed week for each of the cities. This involved
randomly selecting a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday from the 13-week period for each city. No two cities had the same constructed
week. This process provided a representative sample of days for each city and spread
the content collection process across each day within the time period.
Content was collected by downloading television, radio and citizen journalism
content from the Internet and by ordering hardcopies of daily and weekly newspapers.
Capturing radio and television content off air for this many outlets was deemed to be
27

cost prohibitive. It was assumed that television stations loaded all or most of their
broadcast content online. A survey of people at television and radio stations who were
responsible for content was conducted to determine the likelihood that radio stations
placed their content online. Survey results indicated that this was an accurate
assumption for the television stations and a vast majority of radio stations. In some
cases, when subscriptions to newspapers were unavailable, the content was
downloaded from Web sites.
From February 1 to May 2, approximately two-dozen undergraduate and
graduate students download content from the Internet and collected and organized
newspapers. As is always the case, problems sometimes occur with the collection of
content. For example, subscriptions were not received or errors were made in the
execution of downloading instructions. For the 120 central cities, content was not
downloaded for one city, and 21 cities did not have city council meetings on the
selected dates, although content was downloaded for these 21 cities. This left 98 cities
with content selected on the day of and the day after a city council meeting. For the 119
suburbs, seven cities did not have a city council meeting on the selected date and 35
cities had no stories for the two dates. Four of the 35 cities resulted from not having
content for those dates, and the rest resulted from not having any coverage of the
suburban city for that date. Fifty-three of the suburbs had no weekly or daily
newspapers located in the town. Overall, 77 suburban cities had content from the day of
and the day after a city council meeting dedicated to the city of interest.
Coder Training and Reliability Assessment
28

The extensiveness of the proposed content analysis required a two-stage process
for coding. Coder training for the project began in the summer of 2009 and project
coding continued into the summer of 2010.
Two protocols had to be developed and used in sequence as the project
progressed. The first protocol, applied to 6,810 units of content for the city council
dates, was used in the first stage of the project with a limited number of crucial
variables. Specifically in that first stage, a number of coders were trained and tested to
recognize the kind of outlet producing the content and the primary topic of the content.
Special attention was paid to topic because the coding on that variable determined
whether more extensive coding would be done subsequently on that content unit. The
second stage, involving fewer than 1,206 units of content identified in the first stage as
involving city government, required training coders to recognize more specific topics
and a variety of sources used to cover them that were cited in the content.
Training for the first stage of the project lasted five weeks and involved a dozen
coders at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels recruited from the Michigan State
University undergraduate honors and from master’s and doctoral programs in the
College of Communication Arts and Sciences. The three-hours per day training sessions
followed an invariant pattern of practice, preliminary testing and debriefing. At the end
of the five-week period, coders were tested on a subsample of 150 stories. Their
reliability was assessed using percentage agreement and the Scott’s Pi statistic to
correct for chance agreement. The minimum Scott’s Pi score for retaining coders (and
variables) was set at .8, and all coders (and variables) achieved this level of reliability.
29

However, coding for this stage of the project lasted months, and researchers
required periodic ¡°check reliability¡± assessments to make sure that coder
understanding of the operational definitions of the variables remained consistent.
Three such ¡°checks¡± were made, using subsamples of 50 stories when researchers
estimated that about a quarter, half and three-quarters of the content was coded for the
initial stage of the project. All such tests were passed by all coders (and variables) as
assessed by the standards described above.
The second stage of the project proceeded similarly. A four-week training
period was run concurrently with coding also being done for the first stage. This
training used coders available from the first stage and augmented by additional
undergraduate and master’s level students.
The protocol used for this stage was more extensive and complex, and results
from reliability testing (using a subsample of 50 stories) required that some coders be
dropped from the project and some variables dropped from the analysis. Of nine coders
who trained, five were retained. Some protocol variables were combined into larger,
more easily coded categories and others were dropped entirely. Again, standards for
assessing coder reliability were percentage of agreement and the Scott’s Pi statistic to
correct for chance agreement. And because this coding operation also lasted months, a
subsequent retest of coders was conducted when researchers estimated that about 40
percent of all content units were coded. In addition, some of the project’s original
coders could not continue, requiring additional recruitment at this point. So for this
¡°check¡± test, coders working on the project were joined by newly recruited ones. Of
nine current and newly recruited coders undergoing training, six were retained for the
30

project because their reliability on protocol variables met or exceeded the minimum
standards set.
Overall, then, this project presented unusual problems because of the volume of
the material and the consequent need to conduct coding operations over a very long
period. In particular, the length of the coding operation presented concerns about the
ability of coders to retain the reliability they had been trained to achieve. The ¡°check
tests,¡± however, largely allayed these concerns.
31