Electoral accountability is central to theories of representation in democracies, and it is widely believed that the news media play a critical role. This paper examines whether and how the media contribute to accountability. Drawing on an extensive archive of local newspaper at TV newscast transcripts, media market and circulation data, state legislative roll-call votes, and measures of district-level public opinion on five policy areas, I find that media coverage is associated with greater policy responsiveness in state legislatures. I do so focusing on five policy areas in which states do a considerable amount of lawmaking and for which public opinion can be readily measured: abortion, LGBTQ rights, police accountability, the minimum wage, and gun control.

However, defying the seminal theories of electoral accountability, I find no evidence that the media affects what the public knows about state politics or how they behave in state legislative elections. Rather, I conjecture that local news affects representation via a more direct, elite-focused "watchdog" mechanism--by informing legislators about public opinion or increasing the perceived costs that politicians face when deciding to cast an unpopular vote.