Financing the Fourth Estate: The Impact of Local Newspaper Ownership Type on Self-Reported Civic Engagement

Roberta Fiorito (Ph.D. student), “Financing the Fourth Estate: The Impact of Local Newspaper Ownership Type on Self-Reported Civic Engagement,”research-in-program submission accepted for presentation in the Community Journalism division of the 2025 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, Chapel Hill, March.

Abstract: This study explores the connection between types of local newspaper ownership—private, public, private investment, nonprofit—and citizens’ self-reported levels of civic engagement. Previous studies investigating the impact of dwindling or absent local newspaper coverage—particularly with concern to those newspapers owned by private investment—have shown increased polarization, political corruption and municipal spending. My study intends to fill a research gap in journalism scholarship by addressing the effect of the types of companies that own local newspapers on the civic engagement levels of the communities those papers aim to serve at a time when local newspapers are facing their most dire crisis to date.