The Routledge Companion to Local Media and Journalism

Agnes Gulyas is Professor in Media and Communications at the School of Creative Arts and Industries, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. Her recent projects have focused on local media gaps and local news consumption in the UK, as well as journalists' use of social media. She is a founding member of the Local and Community Media Network of the Media, Communication and Cultural Association, UK. David Baines is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University, UK. He worked in local and regional newspapers for 30 years before moving to the academy, where his research focus is on transformations in local and community media, journalism practices and journalism education. He is a founding member of the Local and Community Media Network of the Media, Communication and Cultural Association, UK.

Introduction: demarcating the field of local media and journalism

Agnes Gulyas and David Baines

Part I - Histories and legacies of local media and journalism






Historicising the afterlife: local newspapers in the United Kingdom and the ‘art of prognosis’
Rachel Matthews




A history of the local newspaper in Japan
Anthony S. Rausch




Local news deserts in Brazil: historical and contemporary perspectives
Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva and Angela Pimenta




History of local media in Norway
Eli Skogerbø




State of play: local media, power and society in the Caribbean
Juliette Marie Storr




‘Peopleization’ of news: the development of the American local television news format
Madeleine Liseblad



Part II - Local media policies




The death of broadcast localism in the United States
Christopher Ali




Developing local media policies in sub-state nations: the case of Catalonia
Mariola Tarrega and Josep Angel Guimerà




Local journalism in Australia: policy debates
Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller




The development of community broadcasting legislation in Kenya
Rose N. Kimani




Local media policies in Poland: key issues and debates
Sylwia Męcfal




The impact of communication policies in local television models: the cases of Catalonia and Scotland
Aida Martori Muntsant



Part III - Local media, publics and politics




Local journalism in the United States: its publics, its problems, and its potentials
C.W. Anderson




Remediating the local through localised news making: India’s booming multilingual press as agent in political and social change
Ursula Rao




De-professionalization and fragmentation: challenges for local journalism in Sweden
Gunnar Nygren




Central and local media in Russia: between central control and local initiatives
Ilya Kiriya




The return of party journalism in China and ‘Janusian’ content: the case of Newspaper X
Jingrong Tong




Strategy over substance and national in focus? Local television coverage of politics and policy in the United States
Erika Franklin Fowler




From journal of record to the 24/7 news cycle: perspectives on the changing nature of court reporting in Australia
Margaret Simons and Jason Bosland



Part IV - Ownership and sustainability of local media




Business and ownership of local media: an international perspective
Bill Reader and John Hatcher



Local media owners as saviours in the Czech Republic: they save money, not journalism
Lenka Waschková Císařová



What can we learn from independent family-owned local media groups? Case studies from the United Kingdom
Sarah O’Hara




Local media in France: subsidized, heavily regulated and under pressure
Matthieu Lardeau




‘I’ve started a hyperlocal, so now what?’
Marco van Kerkhoven




The hyperlocal ‘renaissance’ in Australia and New Zealand
Scott Downman and Richard Murray



Part V - Local journalists and journalistic practices




At the crossroads of hobby, community work and media business: Nordic and Russian hyperlocal practitioners
Jaana Hujanen, Olga Dovbysh, Carina Tenor, Mikko Grönlund, Katja Lehtisaari and Carl-Gustav Lindén




Not all doom and gloom: the story of American small-market newspapers
Christopher Ali, Damian Radcliffe and Rosalind Donald




Local journalism in Bulgaria: trends from the Worlds of Journalism study
Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova




Specialised training of local journalists in armed conflict: the Colombian experience
Yennué Zárate Valderrama




From community to commerce? Analytics, audience ‘engagement’ and how local newspapers are renegotiating news values in the age of pageview-driven journalism in the United Kingdom
James Morrison




Two-tier tweeting: how promotional and personalised use of Twitter is shaping journalistic practices in the United Kingdom
Lily Canter




Centralised and digitally disrupted: an ethnographic view of local journalism in New Zealand
Helen Sissons




Situating journalistic coverage: a practice theory approach to researching local community radio production in the United Kingdom
Josephine F. Coleman



Part VI - Communities and audiences of local news




What does the audience experience as valuable local journalism? Approaching local news quality from a user’s perspective
Irene Costera Meijer




Local journalism and at-risk communities in the United States
Philip M. Napoli and Matthew Weber




The emerging deficit: changing local journalism and its impact on communities in Australia
Margaret Simons, Andrea Carson, Denis Muller and Jennifer Martin




Strength in numbers: building collaborative partnerships for data-driven community news
Jan Lauren Boyles



Bottom-up hyperlocal media in Belgium: Facebook-groups as collaborative neighborhood awareness systems
Jonas De Meulenaere, Cédric Courtois and Koen Ponnet




Local news repertoires in a transforming Swedish media landscape
Annika Bergström




The what, where, and why of local news in the United States
Angela M. Lee



Part VII - Local media and the public good




Local media and disaster reporting in Japan
Florian Meissner and Jun Tsukada




Public service journalism and engagement in US hyperlocal nonprofits
Patrick Ferrucci




Local public service media in Northern Ireland: the merit goods argument
Phil Ramsey and Philip McDermott




Participation in local radio agricultural broadcasts and message adoption among rural farmers in northern Ghana
Adam Tanko Zakariah


Pacific Islanders’ talanoa values and public support point the way forward
Shailendra Singh




Alternative journalism, alternative ethics?

Tony Harcup