Yearly Archives: 2017

Hyperlocal news outlets failing to maintain focus on communities they cover, research shows

Hyperlocal news publications are turning out to be “not all that local,” says a researcher who looks at the geography of news at the community level.

Carrie Buchanan, a journalism professor at John Carroll University, says that she expected hyperlocal news publications, which often focus on a small suburb or neighbourhood in a larger city, to be better than their metropolitan media counterparts at helping foster identity in local communities.

But since they often do not, as she has found, it can mean real consequences for civic engagement.

Initiatives for strengthening local news systems to be discussed at June conference

Experiments in the United States show that there are ways to foster healthier local news systems through innovative financial models, community engagement and collaboration between newsrooms, says a leading authority on local news “fixes.” Josh Stearns, associate director of the Democracy Fund’s Public Square Program, said he saw first-hand the positive impact these types of initiatives can have while working with six local news organizations in New Jersey.