CNPA’s April 22 roundtable presented Julie Makinen, executive editor of The Desert Sun and state editor-California, alongside a panel of experts on politics in the media: Joshua P. Darr of Louisiana State University, Matthew Hitt of Colorado State University and Johanna Dunaway of Texas A&M University.
They discussed their recently released book, “Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization.” The panelists spoke about the process behind their 85-page analysis and how they reached the surprising conclusion that, “While a home style opinion page could not halt polarization, it slowed noticeably in Palm Springs compared to Ventura where another Gannett paper didn’t change its style.”
“We might be actually kind of nationalizing our news environment by shifting away from sources of local news,” said Dunaway during the presentation. “Local news is important, not just in that regard, but in the sense of the fact that not only do they sort of remove focus from that super-conflictual set of partisan frames that we often get in national media attention, but they’re also actually representing or they’re telling constituency, the local people in the community, the things that they need to know about the actions and the behavior of the leaders serving them.”
You can view the webinar recording here.
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