The authors find that the loss of local newspapers - and presumably less information about local matters - leads to less interest and engagement. The problems this posses for "keeping the republic" seem obvious.
Just as interesting, the authors argue that the decline in competitive races for the US House of Representatives has led to less coverage of these races, which in turn has led to less knowledge about them and then less engagement.
And there's more: The increasing number of options available for information has meant that those who follow politics know more and more because they have access to more information and those who want to avoid it have other places to go. They know less and less.
File this under: "important thing to read"
- Click here for the article.
The author does link to this cool cat video.
