Primary Investigator:

Danilo Yanich, University of Delaware

Partnering Organization:

Consumer Federation of America

A key question in the current FCC media ownerhip proceeding is whether to remove restrictions on how many TV stations a company can own in a single market.  The main rationale for preserving these regulations has been concern that consolidation would diminish localism in programming and coverage, but this argument has lacked empirical evidence.  Danilo Yanich, director of the University of Delaware’s Local TV News Media Project, has analyzed two years of televised newscasts from five major media markets -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Albuquerque.  His finding: media concentration correlates with less local news coverage.

Yanich conducted content analysis of local television news footage obtained from videotaped television newscasts recorded by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in 1998 and 2002.  The five selected media markets—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Albuquerque—enabled the research team to examine the consequences of duopoly ownership, in which one firm owns two television stations in the same market.

Yanich found that patterns of ownership do matter in the production of news—particularly local news coverage.   In general, independently owned stations broadcast more local content on their newscasts than those stations that were either (1) owned-and-operated by a network and part of duopoly; (2) owned-and-operated by a network; or (3) part of a duopoly. 

Yanich’s results suggest that consolidated media ownership negatively affects the production of local content on local television stations.  In the context of the current FCC media ownership proceedings, Yanich’s results suggest that the FCC should not relax rules restricting ownership of major media outlets—notable restrictions on how many television stations can be owned by a single firm and whether a single firm can own both a television station and a newspaper in the same market.

These questions are of particular concern to public interest groups like the Consumer Federation of America, whose 300 member organizations nationwide have raised concerns about media concentration and its impact on localism. 

Yanich’s study replicates and expands a study of localism and consolidated ownership that researchers at the FCC conducted in 2004.  Mark Cooper, Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America, called that research “the most important ownership study conducted by the FCC in the past half decade”.  Researchers at the FCC concluded that media consolidation negatively affects local content on local TV newscasts.  However, the FCC suppressed the study because it did not comport with its policy preferences.  Yanich’s conclusions reinforce the FCC study’s findings and, therefore, make the case more forcefully regarding media consolidation’s negative impact on localism.  Cooper continues, "In light of these results, it is obvious why the FCC suppressed its own study. The message is clear, media concentration undermines localism."

The findings of the study have already been presented at TPRC, one of the most important media policy research conference in the US.  Further, the FCC’s ongoing media ownership proceeding provides the opportunity for the study to have immediate policy impact as its findings are incorporated into formal filings as evidence for limiting media consolidation.  Doing so forces the FCC to consider evidence that it clearly has not wanted to acknowledge. 

More information and analysis of local television news content can be found on http://www.localtvnew.org, the Local TV News Media Project website.  

The Consumer Federation of America website contains additional studies, testimony and commentary on media ownership: http://www.consumerfed.org/topics.cfm?section=Communications&Topic=Media%20Concentration .