Press Coverage and Accountability in State Legislatures
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7513841 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew C W Myers (0009-0008-5522-8877, Stanford University), Andrew Myers (0009-0005-1579-0492, Stanford University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 120 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 207-225 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s000305542500022x |
| OpenAlex | W4410970448 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 87 |
State legislatures are critical policymaking bodies, yet recent studies suggest that elections rarely hold state legislators accountable for their representation and voters generally know little about legislative politics. Would state legislatures function differently if voters had access to more information about legislative politics? Leveraging the haphazard overlap of newspaper markets and legislative districts, I construct and validate a measure of legislative press coverage in all 49 partisan state legislatures for the years 2000–2022 that is plausibly uncorrelated with other district-level variables. Drawing on this large-scale dataset, this article traces the impact of press coverage on state legislative voters, elections, and, ultimately, representation. I find that robust local press coverage substantially augments down-ballot voter engagement, the electoral return to ideological moderation, and the incumbency advantage. Once in office, I further document that state legislators who receive stronger press coverage work more for their constituencies and diverge less from their district’s median voter. Overall, these results suggest that state legislators would be more moderate, representative, and productive were local press coverage strengthened
Accountability · Legislature · Political science · State (computer science · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration
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The Theory of Committees and Elections
The Effect of Newspaper Entry and Exit on Electoral Politics
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The Direct Primary and the Incumbency Advantage in the US House of Representatives
Disentangling the Personal and Partisan Incumbency Advantages
Information and Wasted Votes
Using Regression Discontinuity to Uncover the Personal Incumbency Advantage
The Elusive Quest for Convergence
Media markets and politicians involved in scandals
The Industrial Organization of Congress; or, Why Legislatures, Like Firms, Are Not Organized as Markets
Press Coverage and Political Accountability
Stability in Competition
Markets, Ownership, and the Quality of Campaign News Coverage
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Paper Cuts
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The Incumbent in the Living Room
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The Decline of Local News and Its Effects
It’s Nothing Personal
As Local News Goes, So Goes Citizen Engagement
Media Tactics in the State Legislature
The Advantage of Incumbency in Congressional Elections
Retrospective Voting in Big-City US Mayoral Elections
How Newspapers Reveal Political Power
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The political consequences of alienation-based and indifference-based voter abstention
Not Dead Yet
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Studying Institutions
On the Validity of the Regression Discontinuity Design for Estimating Electoral Effects
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Mapping the Ideological Marketplace
Robustness of the Multidimensional Voting Model
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Candidate Positioning in US Congressional Elections
Local News and National Politics
Accountability for the Local Economy at All Levels of Government in United States Elections
The Electoral Impact of Congressional Roll Call Voting
What Happens When Extremists Win Primaries
Candidate Positioning and Voter Choice
The Ideological Mapping of American Legislatures
Candidate Motivation
Out of Step, Out of Office
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| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |