The landscape for local and community news media in
the UK has been undergoing a period of rapid change in recent years in the wake
of the disruption of traditional business models and the advent of diverse,
entrepreneurial reactions to the spaces created. The impact of Covid-19 on the
local news landscape sees the prospect of an acceleration of changes already
underway, with both commentators and governments concerned about the
consequences of news ‘deserts’ opening up as large commercial news providers
look to protect their business models by closing local titles and making
journalists redundant. Do such changes offer routes for alternative models of
sustaining local news? How might community media operations make the most of
this moment or have audiences already migrated to networked spaces where rumour
and conspiracy fill information gaps?
This volume, intended to be published as part of the
Routledge Disruptions: Studies in Digital Journalism book series, seeks
contributions that offer insights into the emergent local and community news
media landscape and considers how policy responses that have begun to situate
local news as an essential, subsidised public service might play out in
different contexts. The editors wish to invite contributions that consider the
role of local and regional television along with local and community radio, as
well as print and local online news outlets.
An overview of areas which might be addressed include,
but are not limited to, the implications of local and community media practices
and policies for:
- Local democratic processes
- Social justice
- Information provision
- Local media ecosystems
- Community development
- Government policy – present and future
- Local minority ethnic media
- The regulatory environment
- Public subsidy
- Media entrepreneurs and emerging business models
- The local media workforce and platforms
- Alternative local and community media
- State policy interventions
- Interventions by technology platforms or companies
We are particularly interested in contributions that
deal with government and industry policy and some of the contradictions and
potential tensions therein (eg: the use of BBC and Facebook funding for local
news reporters for local papers).
This volume is designed as a rapid response to changes
in this area. We therefore invite abstracts of no more than 300 words by 25th
September 2020. We will inform successful authors by 8th October who will be
invited to submit full chapters of 5,000 words by 15th February 2021, pending
contract.
Responses to dave.harte@bcu.ac.uk.
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