Portrait of the Online Local News Audience

Sharing and Discussing News in Private Social Media Groups

“…The Facebook group of the neighbours here is a classic example of how citizens establish their own online spaces for news to encourage social integration within the local community and to activate latent ties, similar to the integrative role of local weekly newspapers throughout the twentieth century (see Janowitz 1967). McCollough, Crowell, and Napoli (2017) note that especially local social networks depend on such interpersonal exchanges of news, as journalism coverage in many areas is limited and sporadic due to the economic challenges that many local journalism companies currently face. Indeed, previous studies have described local news communities engaging in what Picone (2016) names "productive news activities" as a form of protest, to fill a perceived lack of local news reporting (Chen et al 2012;Dickens, Couldry, and Fotopoulou 2015).…”

“…Such studies underline how news can play an integrative role in social situations and acts as "an integral part of daily life" (Bogart 1989, 169). Recent studies note that this is no different in the digital era: even though technological developments such as personalization techniques may have made the delivery and reception of news more individualized (Couldry, Livingstone, and Markham 2007, 221), people continue to make sense of and interpret news within specific social contexts (Bird 2011;Broersma and Peters 2017;McCollough, Crowell, and Napoli 2017;Schrøder 2015). Thus, by now, as Livingstone (2006) notes, the importance of people's social networks for the use of news has become "a starting point, rather than a discovery" (243).…”

“…Centuries later, "the news", now neatly packaged into professional journalism products, maintains this character. Although often consumed in isolation, studies have repeatedly found that the news still has an inherently social dimension, both directly as a shared activity or indirectly, as a frame of reference or an easy topic for conversation (Boczkowski 2010;Hermida 2014;Larsen 2000;McCollough, Crowell, and Napoli 2017). Therefore, we argue that to fully comprehend how practices of news use are becoming part of people's everyday life, we need to not only consider when and where news is being consumed, but also with whom users are engaging through news.…”

Uncivil and personal? Comparing patterns of incivility in comments on the Facebook pages of news outlets

“…When Heider et al (2005) asked their respondents what characteristics of local newspapers were extremely important, 68% cited understanding the community and 60% caring about the community. Local-news readers are not only interested in following and engaging with local issues and community affairs (McCollough et al, 2017) but also more likely than others to actively participate in the news process, as measured by the posting and reading of comments on the websites and social media pages of local-news sources (Stroud et al, 2016). Such enthusiasm for local news can be viewed in both a positive light-that is, as a high level of news engagement-or a negative one, as being likely to stir up emotional expressions of the sort that are damaging to rational deliberation.…”

Cibermedios hiperlocales ibéricos: el nacimiento de una nueva red de proximidad

“…Los medios de comunicación mantienen todavía un papel central en el ecosistema, aunque otros actores, como buscadores y redes sociales, adquieren una importancia creciente. El ciudadano ahora dispone de muchas vías para informarse y para intervenir, hasta el punto de alcanzar la autosuficiencia informativa en los ámbitos de proximidad a través de la búsqueda, la difusión, el filtro y la recomendación social de las noticias de sus redes sociales (Bonini & Sellas, 2014;McCollough, Crowell & Napoli, 2016). De este modo, el usuario ya no está sometido a la dicotomía "consumidor pasivo"-"productor activo", y las prácticas de baja intensidad participativa cobran mayor importancia (Masip, Guallar, Suau, Ruiz Caballero & Peralta, 2015).…”