Downsizing local news contributes to crumbling infrastructure

Study links local journalism with voter support for fixing public works, which adds to climate resilience

By Alison Hewitt

Key takeaways

• A new study from UCLA and Duke University shows local journalism that produces detailed coverage about aging infrastructure increases voter support for additional infrastructure investment.

• Basic, undetailed reporting, like that from severely understaffed newsrooms or AI-generated stories, resulted in lower support for infrastructure spending.

• Voters demonstrated a willingness to hold local politicians accountable when provided with context in local reporting. 

Reading strong local journalism is tied to greater support for funding dams, sewers and other basic infrastructure vital to climate resilience, according to new research from UCLA and Duke University.

The study, published this month in the journal Political Behavior, found that reading fictionalized samples of news coverage with specific local details about infrastructure maintenance requirements led to as much as 10% more electoral support for infrastructure spending compared to reading bare-bones reporting. Just a few extra paragraphs of context in the mock news stories not only increased support for spending, but also increased voters’ willingness to hold politicians accountable for infrastructure neglect by voting them out of office.

“Local news reporting builds public support for infrastructure investments,” said UCLA political scientist Megan Mullin, a co-author of the study whose research focuses on environmental politics.

“Heat, floods, drought and fire are putting new stress on aging and deteriorating infrastructure, which must be maintained to protect communities against these growing climate risks,” said Mullin, a UCLA public policy professor and faculty director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. “Our study shows that investing in facilities that improve our resilience to climate hazards requires investing in the health of local news.”

Private ownership has cut or eliminated local news staff nationwide, reducing original reporting and local political stories while focusing on national news that can be centrally produced and shared in many newspapers within the same ownership structure, the study’s authors noted. They cited research that found 300 to 500 fewer political stories after average staffing cuts, and a Pew Research Center found that 56% of newspaper employment disappeared from 2008-2022. With fewer reporters staffing newsrooms, the depth of reporting on infrastructure declines.

“Local newsroom capacity is critical to democracy,” said co-author Andrew Trexler, a Duke University doctoral candidate studying political communication. “Our study shows that when newsrooms can commit resources to report more information about infrastructure conditions and failure risks, readers notice and are more willing to hold officials accountable for inaction, and more willing to support higher spending.”

The study surveyed more than 3,300 adults. Each read a news-style story about an upcoming election with an incumbent mayor, a mayoral challenger and a property tax increase averaging $40 annually to fund aging infrastructure. The sample stories, viewable on page 15 of the study’s appendix, described either a local dam or a sewer system.

Control groups read basic, limited-information versions of the articles representing what might be generated with little reporting staff or even AI. Other groups read more complex coverage with a few extra paragraphs: either an investigative version highlighting longstanding flaws and government neglect; a contextual version referring to a similar nearby dam or sewer that failed disastrously; or a combined investigative and contextual version. Study participants then indicated how they would likely vote.

All of the detailed articles increased infrastructure support compared to the control.

“Across the board, we saw more support for infrastructure spending when people read news coverage that provided context about infrastructure neglect and its consequences,” Mullin said. “Empty newsrooms and AI reporting don’t provide communities with the information they need to make investments for their own health and security.”