Erik Peterson

About

I am an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science at Rice University. I received my PhD in Political Science from Stanford University in 2017. I was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College’s Program in Quantitative Social Science and an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University. My research examines the political consequences of the decline of local media outlets and the growth of online news consumption, considering the capacity of media outlets to provide political news, the choices people make to consume (or avoid) political information, and the effects of exposure to political messages on public opinion in this changing media environment.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Business
• Public relations
• Economics
• Advertising
• Computer Science
• Political economy
• Media studies

Selected publications

• The New News Barons: Investment Ownership Reduces Newspaper Reporting Capacity

  The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · 2023-05-01 · 15 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In recent years, local media in the U.S. have faced increasing economic precarity, and many newspapers have been purchased by hedge funds and private equity firms. How do investment owners shape the newspapers they acquire? We document the shift in ownership and its impact on the number and type of journalists that local newsrooms employ. Using over 13,000 digitized media directory pages, we measure the newsrooms of 211 major newspapers from 2005 to 2022. We estimate that the acquisition of a ne…

  PublisherDOI

• Local elections do not increase local news demand

  Political Science Research and Methods · 2023-12-20 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Anemic demand for local news has contributed to an industry crisis. We consider whether local elections, which highlight the ability of local television stations and newspapers to provide information that is unavailable from national news outlets, increase local media use. While we show these elections are a time of increased attention to local politics in the news and among the public, we also find local media outlets do not benefit from this when considering behavioral news use measur…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Fragility of the Local News Trust Advantage: Evidence from Republican Attacks on Local News

  PS Political Science & Politics · 2025-01-07 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  ABSTRACT Today, few political news outlets receive universally favorable evaluations from the American public. In retaining broad public approval, local media remain a notable exception that is important to understand. We consider the durability of local news trust to criticism from politicians, focusing on Republican elites because they generally are more willing to attack the media than Democrats. In a survey experiment, we find that exposure to a Republican politician’s attack on a local news…

  PublisherDOI

• Election Denial as a News Coverage Dilemma: A Survey Experiment with Local Journalists

  Political Communication · 2025-01-29 · 3 citations

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• Can Americans’ trust in local news be trusted? The emergence, sources, and implications of the local news trust advantage

  American Journal of Political Science · 2025-03-29 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Despite eroding consensus about credible political news sources, much of the public still trusts local media. We assess the emergence, sources, and implications of the trust advantage local news holds over national media. We argue the public now uses a news outlet's local orientation as a shortcut to assess its credibility. In survey experiments, we find unfamiliar news outlets are trusted more when they have a local cue in their name. In surveys where people evaluate digital sources co…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Shanto Iyengar

  Stanford University

  76 shared

• Sean Westwood

  72 shared

• Jonathan Mummolo

  44 shared

• Ali Kagalwala

  Texas A&M University

  9 shared

• Maxwell B. Allamong

  Duke University

  9 shared

• Manuela Muñoz

  6 shared

• Gábor Simonovits

  Central European University

  5 shared

• Shannon C. McGregor

  Life University

  4 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Political Science

  Stanford University

  2017

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