how can hyperlocal media create active and digitally inclusive communities?

How can hyperlocal media create active and digitally inclusive communities?

Damian Radcliffe

Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures Review 2015 June 9th 2015

Damian Radcliffe

Running Order

1. Overview: definitions and typology

2. 10 examples of community impacts

3. Challenges for researchers and policy makers

4. Q&A

Part One: Definitions and Typology

Definition

“Online news or content services pertaining to a town, village, single postcode or other small,

geographically defined community.”

Radcliffe, Damian (March 29, 2012)

"Here and Now: UK hyperlocal media today".

Many different types of site

Different size patches

Town / City Visit Horsham: http://www.visithorsham.co.uk/

Blog Preston: http://blogpreston.co.uk/

Pegasus News: http://www.pegasusnews.com/ (Dallas-Fort Worth)

Village Parwich.org: http://parwich.org/

Bournville: http://bournvillevillage.com/

Postcode / Ward SE1: http://www.london-se1.co.uk/

HU17: http://www.hu17.net/

Greater Jackson Ward: http://www.gjwn.net/news/ (Richmond, VA)

Defined community

e.g. estate, area, or niche geographic community of interest

Weir Estate, Lambeth: http://www.wera.org.uk/

Clapham: http://www.loveclapham.com/

Leith: http://www.greenerleith.org/

Irish Philadelphia: http://irishphiladelphia.com/

Capitol Fax: http://capitolfax.com/ (News for Illinois political insiders)

Varying Production Models

Created via a range of different production models, including:

1. Professional – websites run as a full-time operation, often by journalists e.g. OnTheWight and InDenver Times

2. Citizen run/produced – produced by citizens, often alongside a day job

e.g. PitsnPots and Duke City Fix (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

3. Hybrid – sites combining the input of trained journalists and citizen input e.g. Lichfield Blog and Lakeland Local (Florida)

4. Aggregator/Automated – owners typically do not write any content. e.g. Planet Balham or Windy Citizen (Chicago)

… and different funding models

• Online Advertising

• Printed What’s On Guide (SE1)

• Printed Newspaper (Brixton Bugle)

• Social Media Services (Oakland Local)

• Copywriting (Caerphilly Observer)

• eBooks (Londonist)

• Property supplement (HU17.net)

• Weekly newsletter (ChiswickW4.com)

• Groupon and local deals (Caerphilly Observer)

Examples of some who’ve done it. Well worth a look.

Bottom Line

There is no one size

fits all solution.

And no such thing as a typical hyperlocal site.

They’re all different.

Part Two: 10 examples of impact

1. Holding authority to account

Local publishers have: • Reported on by-elections

• Used open data to act as “armchair auditors” and

• Live reported from council and planning meetings

General Election Coverage:

Many of them are actively covered #GE2015 • Provided a tier of local reporting mainstream media cannot

• Cover – and report from – Parish Council meetings and elections

All areas increasingly overlooked by other media outlets.

2. Campaigning

• Brixton Blog’s successful Save the Lambeth Country Show

• Hedon Blog’s ‘Hedon Pong’ campaign – saw Yorkshire Water invest £3.5m in odour control + provide compensation in the form of a £50,000 community grants fund

Data suggests a third of hyperlocal

publishers have run local campaigns

3. Civic Engagement

• Report problems

• Engage directly with officials

• Rise of civic tech movement

4. Giving communities a voice

Forums engage communities big and small.

Since 2002, 180,000 people have produced

nearly 7.6 million posts, on over half a million

topics, on Sheffield Forum.

Daily stories about life in Spitalfields, East London. http://spitalfieldslife.com/ Focus on human interest stories and ultra-local history. Ambition to author 10,000 posts. “At the rate of one a day, this will take approximately twenty-seven years and four months. Who knows what kind of life we shall be living in 2037 when I write my ten thousandth post?” “Your blog has become a daily joy I look forward to savouring. It’s a bit like a grown-up (and

sometimes not-so grown-up) advent calendar. I open it with the same anticipation…”

“I love you gentle author. I read Spitalfields Life when my heart is worn. It makes me think of you and how remarkable the beauty. 2037 indeed. Hope I’m here.”

5. Local Storytelling

6. Providing useful information

• Bournville News took public information but presented it in a useful way, producing a map of Birmingham City Council gritting routes in Bournville.

“I thought the potential grit shortage

might mean that some roads would stop

getting gritted should the cold spell

continue and knowing which roads were

meant to be gritted would be useful

knowledge.

‘Will my road get gritted?’ is an easy

question to answer since the City Council

has a alphabetical list of all the roads that

are gritted in order of priority.”

(Quotes from Dave Harte.)

7. Reflecting cultural identity

• “Voices from the Motherland” strand on Digbeth is Good

• British Library is creating an archive of these sites, to act as a digital record of life in these communities in the future

8. Promoting civic pride

9. Plugging gaps

Covering geographic areas – like the village of Parwich in Derbyshire – or towns like Port Talbot deserted, or deemed too small / uncommercially viable to cover, by mainstream media.

10. Old-school local reporting

• Traditional news

• Sport

• Events

• Arts,

• Links to local services

• Property

• Food and drink features

• What’s on guides

All mainstays of traditional local media.

Part Three: Policy/Research challenges

1. Core problems remain

1. Discoverability.

2. Funding / Commercial Viability.

3. Sustainability.

2. Potential research gaps

• Civic impact

• Social Capital

• Non-market/content

• Conversations elsewhere

3. Cross-cultural synergies

4. Role promoting digital inclusion?

5. Wider Gov.UK impact

Thanks for listening

Questions?

www.damianradcliffe.com

www.slideshare.net/mrdamian

www.twitter.com/damianradcliffe

www.linkedin.com/in/damianradcliffe