A method for measuring investigative journalism in local newspapers

Area of Science:

• Investigative Journalism
• Media Economics
• Computational Social Science

Background:

• Local newsrooms have undergone significant operational shifts, including ownership changes, layoffs, and reduced reliance on print advertising.
• The impact of these changes on the nature and quantity of reporting, particularly investigative journalism, remains under-examined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a novel method for quantifying investigative content in news articles.
• To analyze temporal and cross-sectional trends in investigative news production by U.S. local newspapers over the last decade.

Main Methods:

• Developed a computational method to measure investigative content based on article text and inter-article influence.
• Applied this method to a dataset of local newspaper articles from the past ten years.
• Examined patterns in investigative article production over time and across different newspapers.

Main Results:

• Investigative article production remained relatively stable for most of the decade studied.
• A significant decline in investigative reporting was observed in the final two years of the decade.
• This decline coincided with a recent increase in newsroom layoffs.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a scalable method for measuring investigative journalism.
• Findings suggest that recent economic pressures and layoffs in local newsrooms may be negatively impacting investigative reporting.
• Further research is needed to understand the long-term consequences of these trends on local news ecosystems.