Local News Deserts and Community Social Capital Erosion

ABSTRACT The disappearance of local newspapers across the United States has sparked growing concern about its implications for community life in rural America. This study examines the societal consequences of local news deserts, focusing on three critical dimensions of community social capital: crime, civic engagement, and political polarization. Using a difference‐in‐differences framework and a novel panel dataset of U.S. counties from 1990 to 2016, we find that the loss of local newspapers is associated with significant increases in property and victimless crimes, declines in voter turnout, and heightened political polarization. These findings suggest that local newspapers play a vital role in fostering informal social controls, informing the electorate, and bridging ideological divides.