Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

A growing body of research interrogates the implementation of communication infrastructures such as broadband connectivity in rural areas, but little has been undertaken into the potential for collaborative production of ‘local news’ to generate Habermasian public spheres supportive of sustainability. European and US media organizations are developing such ‘hyper-local news sites’ to serve small rural and urban communities. This article uses a case study of a rural hyper-local project launched by a major regional media company in England’s most sparsely-populated county, Northumberland, to help establish ‘more sustainable communities’. Such sites are usually conceived of as ‘town criers’ but being web based, they position communities both locally and globally, a process which has been conceptualized as ‘glocalization’. The article is informed by theoretical understandings of communicative spaces and places, monitorial citizenship and ‘liquid life’ and journalism developed by Jurgen Habermas, Michael Schudson, Zygmunt Bauman, Mark Deuze and Manuel Castells.

Keywords

community sustainability glocalization hyper-local journalism local media public sphere rural media sustainable communities

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aldridge

(2007) Understanding the Local Media. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Bakardjieva

Williams

(2010) Super network on the prairie: The discursive framing of broadband connectivity by policy planners and rural residents in Alberta, Canada. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research (Thematic Section: Rural Media Spaces) 2: 153–175.

Bauman

(2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Calhoun

(1992) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Carey

(1989) Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.

Castells

(2010) The Rise of the Network Society. Vol 1. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, 2nd edn. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.

Cloke

Milbourne

Thomas

(1997) Living lives in different ways? Deprivation, marginalization and changing lifestyles in rural England. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 22(2): 210–230.

Dahlgren

(2005) The Internet, public spheres and political communication: Dispersion and deliberation. Political Communication 22(2): 147–162.

Delano

Henningham

(1995) The News Breed: A Report on British Journalists in the 1990s. London: London Institute.

10.

Deuze

(2007) Media Work in a Digital Age. London: Polity Press.

11.

Deuze

(2008) The changing context of news work: Liquid journalism and monitorial citizenship. International Journal of Communication 2: 848–865.

12.

Downie

Jr Schudson

(2009) The Reconstruction of American Journalism. New York: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Available at: http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/system/documents/1/original/Reconstruction_of_Journalism.pdf.

13.

Engel

(2009) Local papers: An obituary. British Journalism Review 20(2): 55–62.

14.

Flew

Wilson

(2010) Journalism as social networking: The Australian youdecide project and the 2007 federal election. Journalism 11(2): 131–147.

15.

Forde

Foxwell

Meadows

(2003) Through the lens of the local: Public arena journalism in the Australian community broadcasting sector. Journalism 4(3): 314–335.

16.

Foster

(2009) Information industry: Structure, partnership and change. Business Information Review 26(3): 207–227.

17.

Franklin

(ed.) (2008) Pulling Newspapers Apart: Analysing Print Journalism. London: SAGE.

18.

Franklin

Murphy

(1991) What News? The Market, Politics and the Local Press. London: Routledge.

19.

Gaver

Dunne

Pacenti

(1999) Cultural probes. Interactions 6(1): 21–29.

20.

Giulianotti

Robertson

(2006) Glocalization, globalization and migration: The case of Scottish football supporters in North America. International Sociology 21(2): 171–198.

21.

Habermas

(1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Polity Press.

22.

Habermas

(1996) The transformation of the public sphere’s political function. In: Outhwaite

(ed.) The Habermas Reader Oxford: Polity Press, 28–31.

23.

Halfacree

(2006) Rural space: Constructing a three-fold architecture. In: Cloke

Marsden

Mooney

(eds) Handbook of Rural Studies London: SAGE, 44–62.

24.

Halfacree

(2007) Trial by space for a ‘radical turn’: Introducing alternative localities, representations and lives. Journal of Rural Studies 23(2): 125–141.

25.

Hargreaves

Thomas

(2002) New News, Old News. London Broadcasting Standards Commission/Independent Television Commission. Available at: http://legacy.caerdydd.ac.uk/jomec/resources/news.pdf.

26.

Involve (2007) World Café. Available at: http://peopleandparticipation.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=18219161.

27.

Jansson

(2010) Mediatization, spacial coherence and social sustainability: The role of digital media networks in a Swedish countryside community. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research (Thematic Section: Rural Media Spaces) 2: 177–192.

28.

Jarvis

(2009) The Times and CUNY and others go hyperlocal. Jeff Jarvis blog, 28 February. http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/02/28/the-times-cuny-and-others-go-hyperlocal/.

29.

Journalism Training Forum (2002) Journalists at Work: Their Views on Training, Recruitment and Conditions. London: Publishing NTO/Skillset.

30.

Kellner

(2002) Theorising Globalization. Sociological Theory 20(3): 285–305.

31.

Lefebvre

(1991) The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell.

32.

Linford

(2008) BBC Trust rejects local video plan. Holdthefrontpage, 21 November. Available at: http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2008/news/bbc-trust-rejects-local-video-plan/.

33.

Little

(1999) Otherness, representation and the cultural construction of reality. Progress in Human Geography 23(3): 437–442.

34.

Livingstone

(2009) Foreword: Coming to terms with ‘Mediatization’. In: Lundby

(ed.) Mediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences New York: Peter Lang, ix–xii.

35.

Luft

(2009) Daily Mail owner launches websites aimed at ‘hyperlocal’ communities. The Guardian, 2 July. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/02/daily-mail-hyperlocal-websites (accessed 10 April 2010).

36.

Luft

(2011) Johnston Press plans ‘hub’ to sub all its southern titles. Press Gazette, 1 February. Available at: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=46625&c=1 (accessed 23 May 2011).

37.

Luke

(2000) A situated perspective on cultural globalization. In: Burbukes

Torres

(eds) Globalization and Education London and New York: Routledge, 275–298.

38.

McNair

(2003) News and Journalism in the UK. London: Routledge.

39.

Murphy

(1998) Earthquake undermines structure of local press ownership: Many hurt. In: Franklin

Murphy

(eds) Making the Local News London: Routledge, 80–90.

40.

Myles

(2004) Community networks and cultural intermediaries: The politics of community net development in Greater Manchester. Media Culture and Society 26(4): 467–490.

41.

Press Gazette (2006) Associated ‘hyperlocal’ sites to broaden regional empire. August 4. Available at: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=35180 (accessed 17 February 2010).

42.

Press Gazette (2007) Trinity Mirror hints at more hyperlocal titles. vailable at: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=38431 (accessed 17 February 2009).

43.

Preston

Cawley

Metykova

(2007) Broadband and rural areas in the EU: From technology to applications and use. Telecommunications Policy 131(6/7): 389–400.

44.

Putnam

(1995) Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy 6(1): 65–78.

45.

Ritchie

Spencer

O’Connor

(2003) Carrying out qualitative analysis. In: Ritchie

Lewis

(eds) Qualitative Research Practice London: SAGE, 219–262.

46.

Ritzer

(2003) Rethinking globalization: Glocalization/grobalization and something/nothing. Sociological Theory 21(3): 193–208.

47.

Schudson

(2000) Good citizens and bad history: Today’s political ideals in historical perspective. Communication Review 4(1): 1–19.

48.

Sparks

(2007) Globalization, Development and Mass Media. London: SAGE.

49.

Stenberg

Morehart

Vogel

Cromartie

Breneman

Brown

(2009) Broadband Internet’s Value for Rural America. Economic Research Report No. (ERR-78). Washington, DC: US Dept of Agriculture.

50.

Tookey

Whalley

Howick

(2006) Broadband diffusion in remote and rural Scotland. Telecommunications Policy 30(8/9): 481–495.

51.

Urry

(2007) Social networks, travel and talk. British Journal of Sociology 54(2): 155–175.

52.

van Vuuren

(2006) Community broadcasting and the enclosure of the public sphere. Media Culture and Society 28(3): 379–392.

53.

Wasserman

Rao

(2008) The glocalization of journalism ethics. Journalism 9(2): 163–181.

54.

Williams

Franklin

(2008) Turning around the Tanker: Implementing Trinity Mirror’s Online Strategy. Cardiff: Cardiff University Press.

55.

World Editors Forum (2010) Trends in Newsrooms Report. Available at: http://www.trends-in-newsrooms.org/articles.php?id=75.

Hyper-local news: A glue to hold rural communities together?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References