Yanich and his research team specifically looked at "duopoly" stations, as well as whether they were owned and operated by broadcast networks, along with other ownership characteristics. These questions are of particular concern to public interest groups like the Consumer Federation of America, whose 300 member organizations across the country have been raising the concern about the decline in the quality and amount of local news coverage what has caused the decline, and what can be done about it.

Yanich used as his methodology content analysis of actual local television news footage, which was obtained from videotaped television newscasts recorded by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in 1998 and 2002.  In particularly, his research focused on five media markets -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Albuquerque – because this enabled his research team to examine an important aspect of media ownership: duopoly.  Duopoly is defined as one firm owning two television stations in the same market.

His research found that “ownership does matter” in the production of news, and particularly local news, on local TV news broadcasts.  Yanich found statistically significant relationships between ownership types and total news content and local news content.  In general, independently held-stations (stations that were neither owned-and-operated by a network nor part of a duopoly) broadcast more local content on their newscasts than those stations that were either (1) owned-and-operated and part of  duopoly; (2) owned-and-operated only; or (3) part of a duopoly only.

Yanich concludes that consolidated media ownership negatively affects the production of local content on local television stations.  Thus, he recommends that the FCC re-consider any relaxation of the rules regarding 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.

Advocacy groups working toward stronger rules at the FCC curbing greater media concentration are likely to be very interested in Yanich’s findings.  “This study recreates the data base and replicates and expands the findings of the most important FCC media ownership study in the past half decade,” said Mark Cooper, Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America.  “In light of these results, it is obvious why the FCC suppressed its own study.  The message is clear, media concentration undermines localism.”

Cooper added that “The results have already been accepted for presentation at one of the most important media policy research conferences and they will play an important role when they are filed in the ongoing media ownership proceeding.”

Dr. Yanich’s paper “Ownership Matters? Content, Localism, & Ownership on Local Television News” is available for download on the Media Research Hub site.  Or contact Dr. Yanich directly at dyanich@udel.edu.

More information and analysis of local television news content can be found on the website of the Local TV News Media Project: http://www.localtvnews.org.   The Consumer Federation of America website contains additional studies, testimony and commentary on media ownership .