1984, Schram, a Washington Post reporter, decided to cover the election campaign watching news reports and the candidates' ads on TV. Among other things, Schram con- cluded that the local television news was more influential than the national net- work programs in presidential primary campaigns.
During the weeks prior to the crucial New Hampshire primary, some 432,000 adults living in the Boston TV market (which encompasses southern New Hampshire) watched one of the local hour-long news shows;...