When newsrooms shut down criminal energies are on the rise
What happens, when local editorial offices close and journalists leave town, shows a new study from Harvard University: It’s getting expensive — especially for taxpayers. If there are no local reporters on site to keep an eye on business and politics, criminal energies take on a life of their own.
If the public is missing, local editorial offices shrink, or entire newspapers shut down, this does not remain without consequences. This is shown by a recent study by economists Jonas Heese, Gerardo Pérez-Cavazos and Caspar David Peter in the Journal of Financial Economics.
The researchers examined how companies react when they are no longer being observed by local media. The result: With the closure of local newspapers, criminal activities increase.
In areas where newsrooms were closed, the amount of fines imposed on companies by the authorities rose by an average of 15 percent — in areas where no local newspaper existed, by as much as 36 percent.
Pollutant emissions also increased by 18.3 percent. It was also shown that not only did the number of criminal offenses increase, the seriousness of the offenses and thus the amount of fines also rocketed.
“If there is no longer a local newspaper that keeps an eye on the local economy, many companies obviously see this as a free pass for fraud and rule violations,” says Heese in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The number of unreported cases is probably extremely high. If there is a lack of investigative research by local journalists and thus the lack of contact possibilities for hints from the local community, the consequence is increasing criminal energy: fraud, financial crimes, water and air pollution and violations of occupational safety regulations escalate.
“The local press is an effective monitor of corporate misconduct”
Fines would be paid and lawsuits conducted without the companies having to fear for their image — because nobody covers all their violations.
It was not for nothing that the Washington Post introduced its slogan Democracy Dies in Darkness. Other studies draw similar conclusions: If the local media die, the most important control authority for unscrupulous machinations in business and politics is missing. The local people pay a high price for this.
Sources:
- Heese, Jonas, Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, and Caspar David Peter. “When the Local Newspaper Leaves Town: The Effects of Local Newspaper Closures on Corporate Misconduct.” Journal of Financial Economics (forthcoming).
- Hulverscheidt, Claus: Why local newspapers ensure a good climate, on: sueddeutsche.de (21.10.2021).
- Paul Farhi: The Washington Post’s new slogan turns out to be an old saying, on: washingtonpost.com (24.2.2017).
This article appeared first in German in issue 2 of KATAPULT MV, an independent cartography newspaper without any ads or paywall — solely financed by our loyal and fantastic readers.
