Local Media: Local Journalism In Context

Local Journalism and Local Media Local Journalism and Local Media offers a detailed and comprehensive account of recent and significant changes in local news production including the arrival of online editions, local blogs and fanzines and the seemingly unstoppable march of the citizen journalist. With contributions from academics, local journalists, government press officers, public relations specialists and press regulators, Local Journalism and Local Media examines local news media (including newspapers, radio, television and online) in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; analyses their economic organisation and ownership; explores the range of papers available from the new ‘Metro style’ free papers to the alternative local press; considers local journalists’ changing relationship with their sources of news; and offers a number of case studies exploring the wideranging contents of the local press. Contributors consider developments in the education and training of journalists alongside shifts in journalists’ working practices against a backcloth of changing patterns of media ownership, industrial relations, freedom of information legislation and developments in new technology which, in combination, make local media increasingly reliant on ‘outsider’ sources of news emerging from news agencies and press and public relations offices locally and nationally. Local Journalism and Local Media concludes that while local newspapers are highly successful businesses, the contribution of critical local journalism to local political communications and a flourishing local democracy is less evident than a decade ago. Contributors: Stuart Allan, Chris Atton, Ros Bew, Heather Brooke, Peter Cole, Andrew Crisell, Chris Frost, Ivor Gaber, Gregor Gall, Brent Garner, Sara Hadwin, Martin Hamer, Tony Harcup, Shirley Harrison, Greg McLaughlin, Brian McNair, Rod Pilling, Robert Pinker, Karen Ross, Guy Starkey, Richard Tait, James Thomas, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Granville Williams. Bob Franklin is Professor of Journalism Studies at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. His previous publications include Television Policy: The ’ MacTaggart Lectures (2005), Packaging Politics: Political Communication in Britain s Media Democracy (2004) and Newszak And News Media (1997) amongst many others. Local Journalism and Local Media Making the local news Edited by Bob Franklin First edition published in 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London, EC4P 4EE Under the title of Making the Local News: Local Journalism in Context Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business First edition © 1998 selection and editorial matter, Bob Franklin and David Murphy; individual chapters, the contributors This edition © 2006 selection and editorial matter, Bob Franklin; individual chapters, the contributors “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Local journalism and local media : making the local news / edited by