In journalism, local news refers to coverage of events, by the news, in a local context that would not be an interest of another locality, or otherwise be of national or international scope. Local news, in contrast to national or international news, caters to the news of their regional and local communities; they focus on more localized issues and events. Some key features of local newsrooms includes regional politics, weather, business, and human interest stories. Local news readership has been declining in recent years, according to a recent study. And as more and more television consumers tap into streamed programming, local news viewership is beginning to decline. Nikki Usher, an associate professor at the College of Media at the University of Illinois, argued in The Complicated Future of Local News that "critical and comprehensive local news is a recent invention, not a core element of the history of American democracy.” Television Opt-outs of local television news are frequent before, during, or after national evening news television programming. Often, television networks can also commission or make provisions for their local stations to produce longer standalone local news programmes. In some cases, local television markets/viewing areas within a country may even have a dedicated 24-hour local news channel. Local news stations have also started covering less and less local politics in favor of stories that they believe will garner more clicks or attention. A study has also shown that there has also been less investigative journalism within local news stations in recent years. Differences Local news largely covers the following: local sports local crime and justice local weather local business and economy local events local education local politics local traffic updates (especially during morning and evening newscasts) National and international news, however, tend to cover a wider range of content, including news concerning specialized institutions of wide-ranging international power or influence, such as: (inter)national political and intergovernmental events stock markets (inter)national sports competitions regional environmental events media/entertainment events science/technology events air traffic/aviatory transport events defense/security events Practices in each country In the United States, local news is provided on local commercial broadcasting channels (some of which are television network affiliates). They can either be standalone newscasts that run for at least a half-hour or short segments that air attached to national morning newscasts approximately 25 and 55 minutes past the hour. As not all stations are owned and operated by a television