Defining Democracy Through News Coverage: Democracy Beat Reporters in Local Newsrooms

Andrea Lorenz and Karin Assmann, “Defining Democracy Through News Coverage: Democracy Beat Reporters in Local Newsrooms,” paper accepted for presentation at the National Communication Association annual conference, November 21-24, 2024, New Orleans.

Abstract: Some news organizations in the United States are introducing a new beat in their newsrooms to address the current political environment: the democracy beat. Using textual analysis, this study explores news stories written by local news reporters on the democracy beat in 10 local newsrooms between 2022 and 2023. The analysis of this coverage reveals how local newsrooms make meaning of democracy in the current climate and how they view journalism’s role in sustaining democracy. Reporters dedicated to democracy beats covered news across a broad range, mostly without explicitly linking coverage to either threats to democracy or even mentioning democracy. While most newsrooms leaned into their roles as watchdogs and information purveyors through traditional accountability and procedural election coverage, only a few framed their coverage to encourage political participation, and fewer still attempted to build community cohesion through coverage. These findings lead to the core argument of this study: Newsrooms with democracy beats envision their current role in U.S. democracy as preparing citizens to make informed voting choices, signaling belief in a functioning electoral system, yet not playing a part in helping citizens more actively participate in democracy.