Media Variety
Another factor in access to quality news is the variety of outlet types. Pew Research Center has found that different consumers turn to different media for their news. In addition, although newspapers are the dominant producers of local news, most U.S. adults say they prefer to get news from local TV. Access to more than one type of media may be another indicator of the state of a local news ecosystem.
To better understand the diversity of news sources that reported on and accessed each county, we created a diversity measure for the most common media for news. If counties scored a maximum of five on the diversity measure, they were covered by at least one newspaper, commercial radio station, commercial television station, public radio station, and digital outlet.
The median county had access to four kinds of outlets and was reported on by four types of outlets.
Three counties had access to three different kinds of outlets, 66 had access to four different types of outlets, and 31 had access to five different kinds of outlets.
The counties with access to the fewest outlets were all in Eastern North Carolina — Jones, Martin, and Pamlico counties.
Five counties were reported on by two different kinds of outlets, 37 were reported on by three different outlets, 43 were reported on by four, and 15 were reported on by five different types of outlets.
The five counties reported on by the fewest types of outlets were Hyde, Joes, Martin, Perquimans, and Polk. All but Polk County, which is in Western North Carolina, are in Eastern North Carolina.
There was a reporting gap in the variety of news outlets. More than half of North Carolina counties had access to more kinds of outlets than the number reported on them. Forty-eight counties were reported on by the same number of outlet types that they had access to. Only one county, Forsyth, was reported on by more types of outlets than the number it has access to.
Forty-three counties were reported on by one fewer kind of outlet than they had access to.
Six counties were reported on by two fewer kinds of outlets than they had access to — Bertie, Chowan, Hertford, Pasquotank, Polk, and Washington counties. All but Polk County, which is in Western North Carolina, are in Eastern North Carolina.
Two counties were reported on by three fewer kinds of outlets than they had access to — Hyde and Perquimans counties. Both counties are in Eastern North Carolina.