The Myth of ”The Local in American Journalism

Abstract

The myth of “the local” powerfully informs American journalism's talk about itself. The term local has received less scrutiny than other keywords of the profession, such as objectivity, public, and independence. Yet references to local news figure prominently in many contemporary discussions of newspaper readership, coverage, management, and mission. Different groups interpret the meaning of the local for their own purposes. Ultimately, however, their discourse masks the collapse of the social worlds that the term local purports to describe. The myth of the local persists because it dramatizes and articulates the dilemmas of a commercial press in a democratic society.