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Are U.S. ‘news deserts’ hothouses of corruption?

Jennifer Anzaldi — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:35:27 +0000

Are U.S. ‘news deserts’ hothouses of corruption? Jennifer Anzaldi Tue, 11/19/2024 - 11:35

The March 24, 2021 edition of neighborhood newspaper Northeast News, out of Kansas City, Missouri, contained a surprise for its 9,000 subscribers. Where the front-page news should have been, there was a big, blank white space. This was no printer’s error, but a last-ditch cry for help. After 89 years in operation, Northeast News had found itself on the brink of insolvency due to the loss of key advertisers amid the COVID pandemic. The empty front page was designed to remind the community of what it would lose if its only local paper went under.

The gambit went viral, prompting a flood of online donations that is keeping the paper afloat, for now. Ironically, Northeast News owes its existence to the very force that has fueled the more general decline of local journalism in America—the internet.

Brad Greenwood

As advertiser dollars migrated to Facebook and Google, the business model that supported local newspapers for generations came to the edge of collapse. Since 2004, more than 2,500 American newspapers have ceased publication—around one-quarter of the total. Overall newspaper circulation has declined by more than half since 1990.

To be sure, digital alternatives have rushed in to fill the gap, such as citizen-journalist websites, nonprofit news organs, partisan blogs, etc. So, the question represented by the blank front page of Northeast News resonates: What do communities lose when newspapers fold that online journalism startups haven’t (so far, at least) been able to replace?

In the past, industry observers and researchers have linked community newspaper closure to diminished civic trust and political participation, among other negative effects. New research from Brad Greenwood, the Maximus Corporate Partner Professor of Business at the Costello College of Business at 91��, builds on this discourse, finding evidence that when local papers topple, political corruption springs up in their wake.

Greenwood’s paper, coauthored by Ted Matherly of Tulane University, was published in MIS Quarterly.

The researchers focused on U.S. federal districts that lost a major daily newspaper during the years 1996 to 2019. They compared the number of corruption charges (bribery, embezzlement, fraud, etc.), defendants, and cases filed in district court before and after the newspaper closure. The results were striking: Overall, the disappearance of a newspaper delivered a 6.9% increase in charges, a 6.8% increase in the number of indicted defendants and a 7.4% increase in cases filed.

“We looked at federal charges for three reasons. First, the overwhelming amount of statutory enforcement occurs federally. Second, it gives us a uniform definition of what constitutes corruption across every domestic jurisdiction. Finally, and most importantly, federal conviction rates are over 90%,” Greenwood says. “They don’t charge people unless they have a good-faith belief they will prevail at trial.”

Moreover, post-newspaper corruption cases were more likely to go to trial as opposed to resolving in a plea deal, thus incurring greater public costs.

“In an age of misinformation, the solution is not rejecting the professional press, it is embracing it, and ensuring that well-trained and hard-working men and women have both the ability and venue to hold those in power to account."

Greenwood and Matherly also examined whether digital-era upstarts were adequate substitutes for newspapers, in terms of curtailing corruption. They tracked 352 such websites, and found they had no impact on the number of charges, defendants or cases in the districts concerned.

“While it’s hard to say precisely why we don’t see an effect from online news, there are several candidate explanations. Not only do citizen journalists lack the standing and training to tackle questions of public corruption and elevate discourse in the public square, but many of these sites aren’t even legitimate news vendors,” says Greenwood, referencing what are commonly referred to as “pink slime websites.”

Greenwood goes on to suggest that the corruption-preventing power of the defunct papers came not necessarily from journalistic acumen, but rather from the ability to elevate the actions bad actors had taken in public discourse, a process journalism researchers refer to as agenda setting.

Whatever the cause, the ramifications for society are very real. In the Northern District of Illinois alone, corruption-related cases involving more than 1,700 officials cost taxpayers a staggering $550 million per year from 1976 to 2012. The coffers of communities that lose newspapers may suffer more than most, since these cases tend to end up in expensive courtroom proceedings rather than plea deals.

Further, the study only looks at corrupt officials who got caught. Presumably, there are many more whose corruption went unpunished.

All told, these findings suggest that community newspapers should not be regarded as just another business model ill-adapted to digital disruption that should be allowed to fail. Their demise comes at significant public cost, financial and otherwise. “In an age of misinformation, the solution is not rejecting the professional press, it is embracing it, and ensuring that well-trained and hard-working men and women have both the ability and venue to hold those in power to account,” Greenwood says.

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Brad Greenwood

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When Value Is in the Service, Not the Ownership

Marianne Klinker — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 20:39:30 +0000

When Value Is in the Service, Not the Ownership Marianne Klinker Tue, 11/16/2021 - 15:39

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Ioannis Bellos

It’s a cliché, but the car has shaped American history and culture since its invention. Even the American landscape evolved around the rise of the private car—train lines were abandoned as railroad tracks were pulled up in favor of highways; gas stations and motels sprang up in otherwise desolate places; and cities scrambled to design systems for getting millions of cars in and out efficiently. We could ask which came first, the car or the cultural identity related to the freedom cars provide, but, once again, the relationship Americans have with cars is changing. We still want to get from point A to point B with the speed, efficiency, and privacy cars offer, but the urge to own them privately is waning.

Ioannis Bellos

Ioannis Bellos, associate professor of information systems and operations management, began researching service design as a PhD student at Georgia Tech. When talking about his research, he quotes advertising icon Leo McGinneva who famously said, “People don’t want quarter-inch bits, they want quarter-inch holes.” That is, the customer wants what the product can do, not necessarily the product itself. Bellos was drawn to researching businesses that don’t link customer value to product ownership. Car sharing, offered through services like Car2Go, Getaround, and Zip Car, is a perfect example. “In the context of mobility, getting from point A to point B is what matters, not owning the vehicle,” says Bellos.

American car manufacturers are scrambling to reinvent themselves in many ways, from developing electric cars to driverless ones, but Bellos points out an interesting effect of car sharing: The car manufacturers are in on it and are trying to figure out the best way of not selling cars. He notes that many car-sharing companies are actually owned by manufacturers.

“Car makers, especially high-end ones, saw an opportunity for market expansion,” Bellos says. “They can reach out to more customers by providing a way to use the cars without owning them.” Car sharing offers ease of transport with the privacy of a personal car but without the headache of upkeep—giving the customer that quarter-inch hole while bypassing owning the drill altogether.

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Costello Research Strategic Management

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School of Business Faculty Niki Vlastara Says Changing Consumer Behavior is the way to Ensure a Sustainable Future

Marianne Klinker — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 20:06:19 +0000

School of Business Faculty Niki Vlastara Says Changing Consumer Behavior is the way to Ensure a Sustainable Future Marianne Klinker Tue, 08/24/2021 - 16:06

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Mariniki (Niki) Vlastara

Years spent engaging with consumers in the business world made Niki Vlastara realize that how sustainability concepts and proposals were marketed significantly influenced how successful they became. As she worked her way into academia and eventually to the 91�� School of Business it’s been her focus to study how to best engage and convince both customers and corporations to act with people, planet, and prosperity in mind.

Niki Vlastara

Vlastara, an assistant professor in the Marketing Department, joined the School of Business in 2019. Her research interests focus on consumer behavior, consumer ethics and sustainable development— making her a perfect member of the Business for a Better World Center (B4BW) Affiliate Faculty team. Before entering academia, she held different executive positions in marketing and revenue planning in the leisure industry and served as a consultant in business development for startup ventures, developing their marketing strategy and communications plans.

Recently, we had the opportunity to catch-up with Vlastara to learn more about her journey to the business for good space, and how his research contributes to the cause.

What motivated you to start working in the sustainability space?

Before transitioning into academia, I spent a number of years in business—particularly in executive positions. In those roles, I was involved in streamlining and introducing sustainability into our operations and marketing department in order to minimize costs and waste. Years later, after I had started my PhD, I realized that change is most possible and achievable when all stakeholders are involved. Moreover, I came to understand that people must be convinced of the benefits a new or different approach will bring—such as acting in a sustainable way—before they will change their behavior. That is the main reason my research, both then and through today, is focused on consumer behavior, and, in particular, examines the intersection of the ethics of consumption and sustainability. I believe understanding what motivates changes in customer behavior may lead us to identifying more effective ways to communicate both the urgency, and the benefits of sustainable behavior. Ideally this will result in a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

What can you tell us about your ongoing research?

The United Nations World Commission defines development as sustainable if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. I am very motivated to contribute to efforts that will help ensure that kind of development increases. Consequently, my research pays close attention to the messages consumers and corporations alike receive on that issue. Trying to define what affects the future is in itself difficult, and I have been trying to determine how to characterize, outline, and describe a future with increased risk due to climate change, and how that to make the message understandable, relevant, and pressing enough to motivate change in consumer behavior.

But you’re doing more than just research, can you describe some of your other activities?

I am part of the Centre for Research into Sustainability, which is a group of academic researchers in accounting, finance, marketing, management, and operations management that work on sustainability issues. In addition to my affiliation with B4BW, while at Mason I also joined the Institute of Sustainable Earth because I believe that sharing and cooperating through disciplines can provide a wealth of original ideas and courses of action to achieve our goals. In that same vein, my being part of the Gender and Consumer Behavior group of academic researchers has provided me with a more inclusive and diverse way to approach certain subjects and problems in business.

Before coming to Mason, I was on board of the Miami Chapter of U.N. Association where I helped promote the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals to the local community, corporations and education centers.

Niki, thank you so much for your work in this field and your commitment to B4BW. What could we be doing to support you and your colleagues’ research and other efforts?

I believe that B4BW is offering tremendous value serving as a platform for discussions, the exchange of ideas, and most importantly by spearheading ways for action. Looking to the future, the development of a minor based on the principles espoused by B4BW would help ensure our students and faculty truly think about these issues differently, and help create a better world indeed.

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