Local Journalism: Critical Perspectives on the Provincial Newspaper

Local Journalism investigates the range of meanings associated with the ‘local newspaper’ and considers how digital technology has disrupted the fabric of the local news industry.

Divided into two parts, this book first provides a theoretical account of how normative meanings associated with the local newspaper have been challenged by the impact of digital technology and then goes on to explore these questions via case studies drawn from a variety of contexts including the US, Ireland, Denmark, the UK and Spain. It suggests three thematic ways of understanding the role of the legacy local newspaper in a post-digital environment, namely as an information provider, commercial entity and community champion. While much scholarship talks of their demise, this book argues for a more nuanced understanding of the local newspaper and its continued significance to people, places and commercial interests.

Local Journalism will benefit students, academics and researchers in the areas of journalism, media studies and sociology.

Rachel Matthews is Associate Director in the Institute of Creative Cultures at Coventry University, England. She researches the past, present and future of the provincial newspaper industry. Her academic interest builds on her career working across editorial departments in weekly and daily titles in the UK.

Guy Hodgson is a lecturer for the Open University, UK, and, on a sessional basis, Liverpool John Moores University, England. His research interest is the reporting of historical events by local and national newspapers. He has worked as a journalist and lecturer for 50 years.