HYPERLOCAL JOURNALISM: THE DECLINE OF LOCAL NEWSPAPERS AND THE RISE OF ONLINE COMMUNITY NEWS, DAVID HARTE, RACHEL HOWELLS AND ANDY WILLIAMS (2019)

摘要

The crisis facing local journalism has become a particularly'hot'topic among Australian media and journalism researchers. We now have a $48 million Federal Government innovations package to support local publishers and at least a handful of universities across the nation are running symposiums or seeking funding from not-for-profit, government or social media conglomerates to assess the sustainability of rural journalism. However, in this neo-liberal environment, we should not lose sight of the fact that understanding the specificities of local news is acquired knowledge that takes time to develop. Often city-centric politicians and those at the 'top' of their respective fields do not have a deep understanding of the local sector. Good journalism is good journalism after all - it just gets better and more refined the higher up (or should we say the more metropolitan) you go ... right? Wrong.