Value of Hyperlocal News

7/29/2019 Value of Hyperlocal News

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The value of hyperlocal

news in the UK: A newanalysis of content

Andy Williams (Cardif

University)Jerome Turner (Birmingham CityUniversity)

Scott Dewey (CardifUniversity)

Dave Harte (Birmingham City University)

Friday, 18 January 2013


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Context: The Value of Local

The value of news often viewed through prism of

its relationship to democracy (McNair 2009). Keyto this is idea that democracy enables goodgovernment most efectively if citizens decisionsare based on reliable information (Habermas,1989; Chambers and Costain, 2001)

Numerous studies have found the crisis in the UKnews industry is endangering the local-ness,quality and independence of local news (Franklin2006, Williams and Franklin 2007, ONeill andOConnor 2009)

But the web has enabled a new generation ofcommunity-oriented news outlets producinghyperlocal news (Bruns 2009, Metzgar et al 2011),



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Context: Consumption of LocalNews in the UK

Source: Communications Market Review,Friday, 18 January 2013


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What we did: This content analysis of hyperlocal newsin the

UK pays particular attention to: sources (who getsto define hyperlocal news and in what ways); topics(what news is covered?); the local-ness of thisnews; the civic value of the news (in relation tocoverage of politics and local institutions, butalso the role of this developing cultural form infostering diferent forms ofcommunity activity)

Sample: Posts published on the sites of members ofthe UKs Openly Local hyperlocal news networkduring 11 days at the beginning of May 2012 (http://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites)

3819 posts were published on 313 activewebsites, and we coded every other story (odd

numbers) in each site: in total, 1941 postsFriday, 18 January 2013
http://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_siteshttp://openlylocal.com/hyperlocal_sites


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The value of hyperlocal:What ets covered?

n=1941

Top topics

Freq. %

Community 252 13.0

Politics(Government)

227 11.7

Sport 224 11.5

Crime/Legal(Individual)

134 6.9

Business/ 133 6.9Environment/

Nature109 5.6

Entertainment/

Leisure

98 5.0

Geographically-focused,community-orientedform of local newslocal clubs, societies,leisure time activitiescovered regularlyLots of coverage oflocal politics which

is declining inmainstream press Very little coverageof local political

activismFriday, 18 January 2013


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The value of hyperlocal: Who gets to

n=187

Top Sources Fre %

Local Politics392 20.

Business/Commercial

26814.3

Member ofPublic

233 12.4

CommunityGroup

133 7.1

Police 114 6.1

Sportsperso 106 5.7

Culture/ 102 5.4

Some similarities with,and some diferencesfrom, the commerciallocal press

O

cial sources in localpolitics, business, thepolice are still veryimportant source

groups But theres much moreof a voice for localpeople (members of the

public, members ofFriday, 18 January 2013


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The value of hyperlocal: Local news for local

Local-ness of the

story, n=1941

Local-ness of

source utterances,Friday, 18 January 2013


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The value of hyperlocal: a

The number of sourcescited was quite low (onlyaround half of posts rely onsources, & only around a

fifth cite more than onesource)

When secondary sourceswere cited, it was mostly toconvey agreement, or to

add context Disagreement between

sources was only found in3% of posts

Could have implications for:

http://alittlebitofstone.com/2012/05/10/ducklings-rescued-

http://alittlebitofstone.com/2012/05/10/ducklings-rescued-from-oulton-drain/http://alittlebitofstone.com/2012/05/10/ducklings-rescued-from-oulton-drain/http://alittlebitofstone.com/2012/05/10/ducklings-rescued-from-oulton-drain/http://alittlebitofstone.com/2012/05/10/ducklings-rescued-from-oulton-drain/


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The Value of Hyperlocal:Fostering community activity

Calls to dif

erent kinds of community activityFriday, 18 January 2013


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Calls to diferent kinds of citizen

The value of hyperlocal:Fostering collaborative citizen



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The value of UKhyperlocal news:

Where do we go next with theresearch?

Weve looked at the value ofhyperlocal content. Nextcomes research on theproduction and reception ofhyperlocal news.

The next steps of the projectinvolve researching value:

Qualitative work withhyperlocal audiences

In-depth semi-structuredinterviews with, and anonline survey of, hyperlocal


Value of Hyperlocal News

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