Citizen Journalism Sites as Information Substitutes and Complements for United States Newspaper Coverage of Local Governments

Abstract

A content analysis of 48 citizen journalism sites, 86 weekly newspapers and 138 daily newspapers indicates that citizen journalism sites differed enough in six local government content attributes to conclude that citizen journalism sites are, at best, imperfect information substitutes for most newspapers. However, the data also indicate that some large-city citizen journalism sites complement newspapers by increasing the number of news stories and the amount of opinion available about local government. The results also found differences between citizen news sites and citizen blog sites. Few citizen journalism sites outside of large metropolitan cities covered local government.

The Future of Journalism

“…Starved of economic and editorial resources, these local newspaper watchdogs are constrained on a tight financial leash, no longer able to hold local politicians and governments to account. Research in the United States (Fico et al 2013) and Sweden (Karlsson and Holt 2014) signals that the newly emerging participatory, hyperlocal news organisations are insufficiently resourced to substitute for the democratic oversight provided by the disappearing local papers; they are "imperfect substitutes at best for most newspapers when it comes to local government coverage" (Fico et al 2013, 166).…”

The expansion and contraction of the journalistic field and American online citizen journalism, 2000–2012

“…Most quantitative work has rightly focused on the nature of the content CJ sites produce, comparing them to newspapers and other routine practices of journalists (Carpenter, 2010(Carpenter, , 2008Fico et al, 2013;Reese et al, 2007). It has, however, largely neglected two sets of the fundamental questions that the current study examines.…”

“…In fact, both are forms of journalism that extend beyond the boundaries of CJ and neither defines it. One development within journalism has been the trend toward hyperlocal, community journalists seen as filling in the gaps where local reporting has vanished (Fico et al, 2013). Losses in subscribers, declining advertising rates, and consolidation of ownership in the newspaper industry have all contributed to the death of a large number of newspapers, especially in small communities.…”

“…2). More than the Tahrir Square, activist mode of CJ, foundations seem to have promoted a professionalized, community-oriented, "newspaper replacement" model (Fico et al, 2013;Lewis, 2012Lewis, , 2011.…”

“…To be sure, foundations and scholars have, at times, used the terms interchangeably (Carpenter, 2010(Carpenter, , 2008Carpenter et al, 2013;Fico et al, 2013;Lacy et al, 2009;Schaffer, 2007). However, not all citizen journalists focus on local issues; in our data, only 33% of CJ sites were oriented toward a local geographic community.…”