{"id":13969,"date":"2014-07-21T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/how-statehouse-reporting-power-compares-with-a-states-population\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:21:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:21:08","slug":"how-statehouse-reporting-power-compares-with-a-states-population","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/07\/21\/how-statehouse-reporting-power-compares-with-a-states-population\/","title":{"rendered":"How statehouse reporting power compares with a state\u2019s population"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2014\/07\/10\/americas-shifting-statehouse-press\/\">new Pew Research Center report<\/a> found a decline in the ranks of newspaper reporters covering government from some of the most important venues in the U.S.\u2014the 50 state capitol buildings. Our data also revealed that one key indicator of the size of a statehouse press corps is state population, with eight of the 10 most populous states\u2014California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan\u2014ranking in the top 10 in the number of full-time reporters.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there is another way to look at the relationship between statehouse reporting power and population. The color-coded interactive map (below) ranks states by the number of statehouse reporters for every 500,000 residents. And by that measure, the results are very different.<\/p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<h4 id=\"news-reporting-power-varies-across-50-statehouses\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Reporting Power Varies Across 50 Statehouses<\/h4>\n\n<h5 id=\"click-on-a-state-to-see-its-number-of-full-time-statehouse-reporters-per-500000-residents\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Click on a state to see its number of full-time statehouse reporters per 500,000 residents<\/h5>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"500\" src=\"http:\/\/alext1822.cartodb.com\/viz\/acc1e178-0df3-11e4-89ea-0e73339ffa50\/embed_map?title=false&amp;description=false&amp;search=false&amp;shareable=true&amp;cartodb_logo=false&amp;layer_selector=false&amp;legends=true&amp;scrollwheel=false&amp;fullscreen=false&amp;sublayer_options=1&amp;sql=&amp;sw_lat=16.003575733881327&amp;sw_lon=-111.4892578125&amp;ne_lat=42.06560675405716&amp;ne_lon=-48.1201171875\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"meta wp-block-paragraph\">Source: Pew Research Center, U.S. Census Bureau, Council of State Governments Book of the States 2013. <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/media-indicators\/Statehouse-Reporters-in-the-United-States-2014\/\">Table of Data<\/a><\/p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more-->The state with the highest rate\u00a0of full-time reporters per 500,000 residents (at 10.4) is tiny Vermont, which at about 625,000 residents, is the second smallest state in the nation by population. The smallest, Wyoming, ranks third when population is factored in, with 5.3 statehouse reporters per half million people. Several other states with modest populations round out the top tier: Alaska (5.6); Montana (4.0) and Rhode Island and Idaho (tied at 3.8). \u00a0The median state rate is 1.3 reporters per 500,000 residents.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conversely, some of the largest states\u2014with some of the largest statehouse press contingents\u2014end up at or near the bottom in the rankings. California is second in overall number of full-time reporters (43) covering statehouse news for a population of more than 37 million. But that works out to only 0.6 journalists per 500,000 residents\u2014the lowest rate in the nation. Texas, which ranks No. 1 at 53 full-time statehouse reporters, finishes in the bottom half of states by the same measure (1.1 reporters).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our interactive map shows each state\u2019s rate of statehouse reporters per 500,000 \u00a0residents\u2014as well as the total number of full-time reporters and the 2012 U.S. Census population numbers. It also includes the average length of a state\u2019s legislative session.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In trying to identify the factors that might explain the size of a statehouse press corps, Pew Research looked at a number of demographic variables, including population size, income and education levels, age, race and ethnicity, percentage of residents living below the poverty line and the urban-rural breakdown.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aside from population size, the other factor that correlates to the number of reporters in a state is the length of its legislative session. Of the 10 states with the longest legislative sessions\u2014based on the average length of the past two sessions ( in 2012 and 2013)\u2014eight of them also ranked in the top 10 in the number of full-time statehouse reporters. Of the five states that averaged a full 12-month annual session\u2014Wisconsin, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California and New York\u2014only Massachusetts did not finish among the top 10 in reporters.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State population is one key indicator of the size of a statehouse press corps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[332,83,346],"bylines":[945,889],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13969","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-media-industry","category-state_local_government","category-state-of-the-news-media-project","bylines-alex-t-williams","bylines-mark-jurkowitz","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-journalism"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":487,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/07\/21\/how-statehouse-reporting-power-compares-with-a-states-population\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"How statehouse reporting power compares with a state\u2019s population","description":"State population is one key indicator of the size of a statehouse press corps.","og_title":"How statehouse reporting power compares with a state\u2019s population","og_description":"State population is one key indicator of the size of a statehouse press corps.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"fdc672a689d2f08c4886a38edd19300d","termId":945},{"key":"8e7ede86892c86fed3cad85793189c48","termId":889}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/13969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/13969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103529,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/13969\/revisions\/103529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=13969"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=13969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}