The value of hyperlocal news in the UK: A new analysis of content Andy Williams (Cardi fg University) Jerome Turner (Birmingham City University) Scott Dewey (Cardi fg University) Dave Harte (Birmingham City University) Friday, 18 January 2013
Context: The Value of Local • The value of news often viewed through prism of its relationship to democracy (McNair 2009). Key to this is idea that democracy enables good government most e fg ectively if citizens’ decisions are based on reliable information (Habermas, 1989; Chambers and Costain, 2001) • Numerous studies have found the crisis in the UK news industry is endangering the local-ness, quality and independence of local news (Franklin 2006, Williams and Franklin 2007, O’Neill and O’Connor 2009) • But the web has enabled a new generation of community-oriented news outlets producing hyperlocal news (Bruns 2009, Metzgar et al 2011), Friday, 18 January 2013
Context: Consumption of Local News in the UK Source: Communications Market Review, Friday, 18 January 2013
What we did: • This content analysis of hyperlocal news in the UK pays particular attention to: sources (who gets to define hyperlocal news and in what ways); topics (what news is covered?); the “ local-ness ” of this news; the civic value of the news (in relation to coverage of politics and local institutions , but also the role of this developing cultural form in fostering di fg erent forms of community activity ) • Sample : Posts published on the sites of members of the UK’s “Openly Local” hyperlocal news network during 11 days at the beginning of May 2012 (http:// openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites) • 3819 posts were published on 313 active websites , and we coded every other story (odd numbers) in each site: in total, 1941 posts Friday, 18 January 2013
The value of hyperlocal: What gets covered? • Geographically- Top topics Freq. % focused, Community 252 13.0 community-oriented Politics form of local news … 227 11.7 (Government) local clubs, societies, leisure time activities Sport 224 11.5 covered regularly Crime/Legal 134 6.9 • Lots of coverage of (Individual) local politics – which Business/ 133 6.9 is declining in Industry Environment/ mainstream press 109 5.6 Nature • Very little coverage Entertainment/ of local political 98 5.0 Leisure activism n=1941 Friday, 18 January 2013
The value of hyperlocal: Who gets to Top Sources Fre % • Some similarities with, q Local Politics 392 20. and some di fg erences 9 from, the commercial Commercial 268 14. Business/ local press … 3 • O ffj cial sources in local Member of 233 12. politics, business, the Public 4 police are still very Community important source 133 7.1 Group groups … • But there’s much more Police 114 6.1 of a voice for local Sportsperso 106 5.7 n people (members of the Culture/ 102 5.4 public, members of Arts n=187 groups, clubs, and Friday, 18 January 2013
The value of hyperlocal: Local news for local “Local-ness” of “Local-ness” of the source utterances, story, n=1941 Friday, 18 January 2013
The value of hyperlocal: a • The number of sources cited was quite low (only around half of posts rely on sources, & only around a fifth cite more than one source) • When secondary sources were cited, it was mostly to convey agreement, or to add context • Disagreement between sources was only found in 3% of posts http://alittlebitofstone.com/ 2012/05/10/ducklings-rescued- • Could have implications for: Friday, 18 January 2013
The Value of Hyperlocal: Fostering community activity Calls to di fg erent kinds of community activity Friday, 18 January 2013
The value of hyperlocal: Fostering collaborative citizen Calls to di fg erent kinds of citizen Friday, 18 January 2013
The value of UK hyperlocal news: • Where do we go next with the research? • We’ve looked at the value of hyperlocal content . Next comes research on the production and reception of hyperlocal news. • The next steps of the project involve researching value: – Qualitative work with hyperlocal audiences – In-depth semi-structured interviews with, and an online survey of, hyperlocal Friday, 18 January 2013
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