Assignment 1

Essay Plan

Regional Newspapers, Community Identity and Social Capital in a Digital World

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31/3/2019

Caroline Hammat

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NET102 Digital Culture and Everyday Life

Assignment 1: Essay Plan

Thesis statement

Digital culture has rapidly changed how we consume entertainment and popular culture with regional communities at risk of losing access to stories and information relevant to them, traditionally served by their local newspaper.

Draft introduction

Improvements to the reliability of internet access across regional and rural communities have seen rapid changes in the media landscape across Australia (Warren, as cited in Freeman & Park, 2015, p. 466). The portability and availability of internet enabled devices is changing how these communities consume their local news (Couldry, 2012, p. 16). The newspaper at a local level has historically played an integral role in connecting communities by telling their stories and providing a platform for issues (Hess, 2015, p.490). Their perceived or actual closeness to the community helps in forming and presenting the communities identity through the social capital they generate. Traditional advertising revenue streams are being monopolised by large digital platforms and this contributes to the downgrading of resources available to regional newspapers (Carson, 2015, p. 1027). The impact of declining advertising revenue and the public’s reluctance to pay to view stories hosted online (Hess & Bowd, 2015, p. 23) could lead to communities unable to reliably access stories researched and written for and about regional communities. The decline in advertising and circulation revenue potentially affects the accuracy, reliability and availability of local news important to regional communities. Digital culture has rapidly changed how we consume entertainment and popular culture with regional communities at risk of losing access to stories and information relevant to them, traditionally served by their local newspaper.

Essay outline

Changes to our entertainment and popular culture platforms and how we consume media.

• Internet enabled phones and more reliable internet access to regional communities

• Streaming services, self-creation of media, citizen journalism.

• Social media and news consumption

• Paywalls and online eEditions

History of regional newspapers and their contribution in reflecting and recording a community’s identity

• Traditionally powerful role in the community (pros and cons)

• Reporting on local issues and telling the community’s stories

• Campaign for regional issues and creating noise that can be picked up by larger media organisations. Connecting individuals with policy and decision makers

• Social capital

• Reflecting and creating identity

• Archiving

Loss of revenue and circulation

• Digital platforms and the monopoly on advertising revenue

• Digital platforms lifting news items from other sources

• Centralisation, amalgamation and closing of regional newspaper offices

• Competition from social media platforms and impact of citizen journalism

• Paywalls and digital subscriptions

Impact of losing or having under-resourced regional newspapers

• Loss of access to local issues and stories not covered by state or national media

• Information supplied by non-genuine news sources is inaccurate and taken out of context, loss of journalistic integrity and no accountability

• reliability of digital archiving

Draft paragraph

Regional and rural communities have historically had a strong and long running connection with their local newspapers. This connection can largely be attributed to their perceived closeness to the community. The divide that exists for metropolitan based journalists private and public life is not possible for those who work for any length of time in regional press. The lines become blurred and it is likely regional journalists will often know those who they write about or meet them outside their work environment (Pretty; Bowd; Alysen et al, as cited in Hess & Bowd, 2015, p. 22). It has been the place of newspapers to inform the wider community of births, deaths and marriages, and celebrate the sporting prowess and academic achievements of residents. Journalists and editors have played a role through this platform in connecting people with those in powerful positions and giving the community a voice in government policy and civic matters (McManamey; Richards; Putnam, Leonardi, & Nanetti; Bowd, as cited in Hess, 2015, p. 484). Newspapers have traditionally remained close to the community and championed for outcomes that are deemed in the community’s best interest yet this closeness can also impact the newspapers objectivity (Maslog, as cited in Hess, 2015, p. 490). This community connection places the local newspaper as an important source of social capital for regional communities. Through the actions of bonding people with their locale, connecting them to each other and providing access to those in powerful positions who are sometimes difficult to reach it has traditionally helped to form and strengthen the community’s identity (Fenton et al., as cited in Hess, 2015, p.483). Even as local newspapers centralise production or ownership changes from local interests there still retains a sense of identity and community (Hess, 2015, p. 486) although this needs a concerted effort to retain that focus. Importantly the local newspaper provides an uninterrupted historical record of the region’s news and events. Records can be accessed through libraries on microfilm and archived hard copies although these may not always easily accessible. Although these older forms of archiving are fast being replaced by the National Library of Australia’s online digital database, Trove (Cathro, 2009).

Scholarly sources

Carson, A. (2015). Behind the newspaper paywall – lessons in charging for online content: a

comparative analysis of why Australian newspapers are stuck in the purgatorial space

between digital and print. Media, Culture & Society, 37(7), 1022–1041. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0163443715591669

Couldry, N. (2012) Media, Society, World. Polity: Cambridge.

Hess, Kristy. (2015). Making Connections. Journalism Studies, (16:4), 482-496. DOI:

10.1080/1461670X.2014.922293

Hess, Kristy and Bowd, Kathryn. (2015). Friend or foe?: Regional newspapers and the power of

Facebook. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, (156), 19-28.

Retrieved from https://search-informit-com-

au.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=463927848802395;res=IELLCC

Turner, G. (2015). Re-Inventing the media. London: Routledge.

References

Carson, A. (2015). Behind the newspaper paywall – lessons in charging for online content: a

comparative analysis of why Australian newspapers are stuck in the purgatorial space

between digital and print. Media, Culture & Society, 37(7), 1022–1041. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0163443715591669

Cathro, W. (2009). Trove: The library’s new discovery service. Retrieved from

http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/11779/20100707-

0013/www.nla.gov.au/pub/gateways/issues/101/story01.html

Couldry, N. (2012) Media, Society, World. Polity: Cambridge.

Hess, Kristy. (2015). Making Connections. Journalism Studies, (16:4), 482-496. DOI:

10.1080/1461670X.2014.922293

Hess, Kristy and Bowd, Kathryn. (2015). Friend or foe?: Regional newspapers and the power of

Facebook. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, (156), 19-28.

Retrieved from https://search-informit-com-

au.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=463927848802395;res=IELLCC

Bibliography

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Ewart, J., & Massey, B. L. (2005). Local (people) mean the world to US’: Australia’s regional

newspapers and the ‘Closer to readers’ assumption. Media International Australia

Incorporating Culture and Policy, 115(1), 94–108. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1329878X0511500110

Freeman, Julie and Park, Sora. (2015). Rural realities. Transforming Government: People,

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Hess, Kristy; Waller, Lisa and Ricketson, Matthew. (2014). Are there news gaps in rural/regional

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