Local people, local places, local voices and local spaces: How talkback radio in Australia provides hyper-local news through mini-narrative sharing

Abstract

Talkback radio in Australia has primarily been conceptualized as a space where populist meta narratives are constructed and, through repetition, entrenched. However, little attention has been paid to talkback that occurs beyond populist programs. This article focuses on the contributions non-populist talkback programs make to local news and community. It examines commercial and non-commercial talkback programs’ facilitation of the sharing of audiences’ mini-narratives and their provision of hyper-local news. Drawing on data from a study of 12 Australian talkback radio programs, the article identifies that these programs provide one of the few available sources of hyper-local news in an increasingly globalized media market. The article examines the type of hyper-local news the study participants gain from talkback and how they use that information.

Converged conversations

“…In regard to RQ5, audience contributions to the ongoing dialogue, this study found that the lengthy and often heated dialogue not only challenged the journalism presented to them but also introduced new information, opinion, and perspective. In other words, the audience not only reacted with opinion but also reached for meaning, contributing in ways similar to what Ewart (2014) found in a study of talk back radio. For instance, a lengthy dialogue on news-herald.com centered on permission slips for the event, something mentioned by neither the reporting nor those who self-identified as being part of the event.…”

“…So-called talk back radio, too, has been studied (Berland, 1990; Boggs and Dirmann, 1999). For instance, Ewart (2014) found that some listeners to talk radio in Australia felt ethical imperatives to provide factual information to ongoing discussions on local social issues in ways similar to journalism.…”

Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites’ Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls

“…Its growing popularity has been theorized as filling a demand for "hyper-local news" that has been abandoned due to media conglomeration (Ewart, 2013). In contrast to nationally syndicated programs such as The Rush Limbaugh Show, it speaks to more concrete local problems, and acts as an electronic town hall for citizens in a regional listening area.…”

The Emergence of Metropolitan News

“…Hence, metropolitan newspapers are largely conceptualized as city newspapers (cf. Anderson 2013;Ewart 2014;Force 1962;Hanusch 2014). Metropolitan newspapers can therefore be said to be 'local' in orientation.…”