Local News, Social Integration, and Community Participation: Hierarchical Linear Modeling of Contextual and Cross-Level Effects

Abstract

This study explores the cross-level interactions of local media use with individual and community factors, in particular, local print news use, using a multi-level analysis of community participation. Findings show local print news readership, an essential constituent of communal solidarity, increases the likelihood of community participation both at the individual level and as a function of readership in communities with higher levels of social interaction. Cross-level effects are also observed between individual-level differences in social interaction and home ownership and contextual variation in print news readership.