Local journalism, The decline of newspapers and the rise of digital media

Avec les contributions d’Olivier Baisnée et Sandra Vera Zambrano

Edited by :
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

For more than a century, local journalism has been taken almost for granted. But the twenty-first century has brought major challenges. The newspaper industry that has historically provided most local coverage is in decline and it is not yet clear whether digital media will sustain new forms of local journalism.

This book provides an international overview of the challenges facing changing forms of local journalism today. It identifies the central role that diminished newspapers still play in local media ecosystems, analyses relations between local journalists and politicians, government officials, community activists and ordinary citizens, and examines the uneven rise of new forms of digital local journalism. Together, the chapters present a multi-faceted portrait of the precarious present and uncertain future of local journalism in the Western world.

Contenu :

Introduction : The Uncertain Future of Local Journalism 1
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Part I Local Media Ecosystems

1. The News Crisis Compared : The Impact of the Journalism Crisis on Local News Ecosystems in Toulouse (France) and Seattle (US)
Matthew Powers, Sandra Vera Zambrano, and Olivier Baisnée

2. Local Newspapers as Keystone Media : The Increased Importance of Diminished Newspapers for Local Political Information Environments
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

3. How News Travels : A Comparative Study of Local Media Ecosystems in Leeds (UK) and Philadelphia (US)
C. W. Anderson, Stephen Coleman, and Nancy Thumim

Part II Local Journalism and its Interlocutors

4. The Plurality of Journalistic Identities in Local Controversies
Florence Le Cam and David Domingo

5. Rethinking Local Communicative Spaces : Implications of Digital Media and Citizen Journalism for the Role of
Local Journalism in Engaging Citizens
Julie Firmstone and Stephen Coleman

6. Perceived Relevance of and Trust in Local Media
Bengt Engan

Part III New Forms of Local Media

7. Between Journalistic Diversity and Economic Constraints : Local Pure Players in Southern France
Nikos Smyrnaios, Emmanuel Marty, and Franck Bousquet

8. Hyperlocal with a Mission ? Motivation, Strategy, Engagement
Marco van Kerkhoven and Piet Bakker

9. Filling the News Hole ? UK Community News and the Crisis in Local Journalism
Andy Williams, Dave Harte, and Jerome Turner

Index



Présentation

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. His research deals with news media, political communication, and the role of digital media in both areas. Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns, his first book, won the 2014 Doris Graber Award for the best book published in political communication in the last ten years.

The contributors to the book are Andrew Williams (Cardiff University), Bengt Engan (University of Nordland), C. W. Anderson (CUNY-CSI), Dave Harte (Birmingham City University), David Domingo (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Emmanuel Marty (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis), Florence Le Cam (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Franck Bousquet (University of Toulouse), Jerome Turner (Birmingham City University), Julie Firmstone (University of Leeds), Marco van Kerkhoven (Utrecht University of Applied Sciences), Matthew Powers (University of Washington), Nancy Thumim (University of Leeds), Nikos Smyrnaios (University of Toulouse), Oliver Baisnee (Sciences Po, Toulouse), Piet Bakker (Utrecht University of Applied Sciences), Sandra Vera Zambrano (Sciences Po, Toulouse), and Stephen Coleman (University of Leeds).