Government, State, U.S., Coverage of

Journalistic coverage of state governments in the United States encompasses a broad spectrum of reporting on legislative, executive, and judicial affairs; civic and public safety issues; and elections. Like reporting on local governments, statehouse reporting has important implications for the effective and transparent function of government, for responsible use of public funds, for public information, and for public debates about issues and legislation. While newspapers lead in the staffing of statehouse press corps, changes in the news industry have led to a decline of dedicated journalists reporting on state governments—a gap into which nontraditional media, particularly public and nonprofit organizations, have stepped in the 2010s and early 2020s to provide focused coverage.

This entry explores the scope of reporting on state government, the status of statehouse ...