The value of UK hyperlocal community news

Williams, Andy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9603-4309, Harte, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2506-1438 and Turner, Jerome 2015. The value of UK hyperlocal community news. Digital Journalism 3 (5) , pp. 680-703. 10.1080/21670811.2014.965932

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (743kB) | Preview

Abstract

The public interest value of news is often viewed through the prism of its relationship to democracy. In this respect news should act as: a source of accurate and plural information for citizens; a watchdog on elites; a mediator and/or representative of communities; and as an advocate of the public in campaigning terms. All of these roles are under pressure in the United Kingdom’s commercial local news sector. This has led many to speculate, often without evidence, that the output of a new generation of (mainly online) hyperlocal citizen news producers might (at least partially) play some of these roles. To test this assumption, we completed 34 semi-structured interviews with producers, the largest content analysis to date of UK hyperlocal news content (1941 posts on 313 sites), and the largest ever survey of UK community news practitioners (183 responses). We found that these sites produce a good deal of news about community activities, local politics, civic life and local business. Official news sources get a strong platform, but the public (local citizens, community groups) get more of a say than in much mainstream local news. Although there was little balanced coverage in the traditional sense, many community journalists have developed alternative strategies to foster and inform plural debate around contentious local issues. The majority of hyperlocal news producers cover community campaigns and a significant minority have initiated their own. We also found that critical public-interest investigations are carried out by a (surprisingly) large number of community news producers.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NE Print media P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Additional Information:	Published online: 17 Oct 2014
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	2167-0811
Funders:	AHRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	12 September 2014
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 01:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/66257

Citation Data

Cited 69 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item