The Local Politics of Public Health
In this two-part miniseries, UAR Remixed speaks with several authors from the journal’s recent symposium, “The Intrinsic Relationship between Local Politics and Public Health.” We speak with the authors about their research, which covers a wide breadth of topics and ideas at the intersection of public health and politics in local contexts. In Part 1, we meet the authors and learn more about the big questions and pressing issues that prompted them to do this research. In Part 2, we’ll be thinking about the inherently political nature of public health policy, and how our present political climate is affecting public health research and institutions at the local level.
Spotlighting the Economy
In this article, “Spotlighting the Economy: Media Coverage and Mayoral Evaluations,” Burke shows that local newspapers are opinion leaders in the cities that they serve. I demonstrate that local newspapers help citizens hold their local governments accountable for economic performance. While a great deal of political science research has found that Americans hold their national government accountable for economic performance, only recently have scholars begun to examine the relationship between economic performance and citizens’ support for their city governments.
Political Consequences of the Endangered Local Watchdog
The prolonged and ongoing struggle of city newspapers to stay afloat and maintain full newsrooms made us curious about potential fallout for local politics. Our new article in UAR leverages 20 years of data to examine the relationship between newspaper staffing cuts and measures of political competition and voter engagement in mayoral elections.