New research by Brock Economics Professor Andrew Dickens examines how the type of television news people receive can affect both voter participation and the behaviour of elected officials.

Co-authored with Mathias Bühler of LMU Munich and published in the Journal of Public Economics, the study uses the rollout of television across Canada in the early 1950s to isolate the effect of different types of news content. At the time, local markets were restricted to either a public or private television station. Both carried the public broadcaster’s national programming, but private stations also provided local news.

The researchers find that exposure to public television reduced voter turnout relative to districts without television, while turnout in areas served by private stations remained largely unchanged. The result points to the importance of locally relevant information in keeping voters politically engaged.

Read the full paper here.