Places and spaces without news: The contested phenomenon of news deserts

Journal article


Gulyas, A., Jenkins, J. and Bergstrom, A. 2023. Places and spaces without news: The contested phenomenon of news deserts. Media and Communication. Volume 11, (Issue 3). https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.7612
AuthorsGulyas, A., Jenkins, J. and Bergstrom, A.
Abstract

News deserts have gained prominence both in academic literature and policy discussions about local news in recent years. Although there is no agreed definition of the term, it usually refers to the lack of or diminishing availability, access, or use of local news or media in a community. It is seen as a significant phenomenon that highlights inequalities in local news provisions, challenges of local media operations in the digital environment, and issues around the quality of local journalism and the critical information needs of communities. This thematic issue aims to contribute to the field by bringing together different approaches to the topic, considering varied empirical studies and methodological designs, and providing perspectives from countries around the world with different media systems and cultures. The articles in the thematic issue address three broad issues: approaches to studying news deserts, local news production and news deserts, and the impact of news deserts on communities. Overall, the contributions reveal that the presence of a news desert is not a simple question of a locality having or not having a local media outlet. The concept is better understood as processes affecting access and quality of local news involving places, news media outlets and production, communities, and audiences. We end the editorial highlighting areas for further research, including the need for more holistic, conceptual, and comparative work
on the topic.

KeywordsLocal communities; Local journalism; Local media; Local news; Media gaps ; News deserts; News inequalities; Subnational media
Year2023
JournalMedia and Communication
Journal citationVolume 11, (Issue 3)
Publishercogitatio
ISSN2183-2439
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.7612
Official URLhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7612
Publication dates
Print28 Sep 2023
Publication process dates
Accepted18 Sep 2023
Deposited02 Oct 2023
Publisher's version
License
Output statusPublished
References

453–471.
Media and Communication, 2023, Volume 11, Issue 3, Pages X–X 3
Assmann, K. (2023). Rise of the zombie papers: Infecting
Germany’s local and regional public media ecosystem.
News Deserts: Places and Spaces Without News,
11(3), XX–XX.
Císařová, L. W. (2023). Backed into a corner: Structural
changes that lead to local news deserts. News
Deserts: Places and Spaces Without News, 11(3),
XX–XX.
Costera Meijer, I. (2019). Journalism, audience, and
news experience. In K. Wahl‐Jörgensen & T. Hanitzsch
(Eds.), The handbook of journalism studies (pp.
389–405). Routledge.
Ferrier, M. (2014). The media deserts project: Monitoring
community news and information needs using geographic
information system technologies. Scripps College
of Communication.
Ferrier, M. B. (2023). Co‐creating news oases in media
deserts. News Deserts: Places and Spaces Without
News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Ferrier, M., Sinha, G., & Outrich, M. (2016). Media
deserts: Monitoring the changing media ecosystem.
In M. Lloyd & L. A. Friedland (Eds.), The communication
crisis in America, and how to fix it (pp. 215–232).
Springer.
Ferrucci, P., Finneman, T., Heckman, M., & Walck, P. E.
(2023). A discursive evolution: Trade publications
explain news deserts to United States journalists.
News Deserts: Places and Spaces Without News,
11(3), XX–XX.
Finneman, T., Mari, W., & Thomas, R. J. (2023). “I didn’t
know how we were going to survive”: US community
newspapers’ resilience during covid‐19. Journalism
Practice, 17(5), 893–910.
Gulyas, A. (2021). Local news deserts. In D. Harte &
R. Matthews (Eds.), Reappraising local and community
news in the UK (pp. 16–28). Routledge.
Harte, D., Howells, R., & Williams, A. (2018). Hyperlocal
journalism: The decline of local newspapers and the
rise of online community news. Routledge.
Jenkins, J., & Jerónimo, P. (2021). Changing the beat?
Local online newsmaking in Finland, France, Germany,
Portugal, and the UK. Journalism Practice,
15(9), 1222–1239.
Jenkins, J., & Nielsen, R. K. (2020). Preservation and evolution:
Local newspapers as ambidextrous organizations.
Journalism, 21(4), 472–488.
Khanom, A., Kiesow, D., Zdun, M., & Shyu, C.‐R. (2023).
The news crawler: A big data approach to local information
ecosystems. News Deserts: Places and Spaces
Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Madrid‐Morales, D., Rodríguez‐Amat, J. R., & Lindner, P.
(2023). A computational mapping of online news
deserts on African news websites. News Deserts:
Places and Spaces Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Magasic, M., Hess, K., & Freeman, J. (2023). Examining
the social, civic, and political impact of local newspaper
closure in outback Australia. News Deserts:
Places and Spaces Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Mathews, N. (2022). Life in a news desert: The perceived
impact of a newspaper closure on community members.
Journalism, 23(6), 1250–1265.
McCollough, K., Crowell, J. K., & Napoli, P. M. (2017). Portrait
of the online local news audience. Digital Journalism,
5(1), 100–118.
McQuail, D. (2019). Equality: An ambiguous value. In
J. Trappel (Ed.), Digital media inequalities. Policies
against divides, distrust and discrimination (pp.
31–42). Nordicom.
Napoli, P. M., Stonbely, S., McCollough, K., & Renninger,
B. (2017). Local journalism and the information
needs of local communities: Toward a scalable
assessment approach. Journalism Practice, 11(4),
373–395.
Napoli, P. M., & Weber, M. S. (2020). Local journalism
and at‐risk communities in the United States.
In A. Gulyas & D. Baines (Eds.), The Routledge companion
to local media and journalism (pp. 368–378).
Routledge.
Negreira‐Rey, M.‐C., Vázquez‐Herrero, J., & López‐García,
X. (2023). No people, no news: News deserts and
areas at risk in Spain. News Deserts: Places and
Spaces Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Nygren, G. (2023). Local journalism with state support.
News Deserts: Places and Spaces Without News,
11(3), XX–XX.
Olsen, R. K., & Mathisen, B. R. (2023). Deserted local
news: Exploring news deserts from a journalistic
recruitment perspective. News Deserts: Places and
Spaces Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Rubado, M. E., & Jennings, J. T. (2019). Political consequences
of the endangered local watchdog: Newspaper
decline and mayoral elections in the United
States. Urban Affairs Review, 56(5), 1327–1356.
Shaker, L. (2014). Dead newspapers and citizens’
civic engagement. Political Communication, 31(1),
131–148.
Steensen, S. (2023). Dealing with Covid‐19 in casual
democracies. News Deserts: Places and Spaces Without
News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Tai, Z., He, B., & Liu, J. (2023). Local news deserts in China:
The role of social media and personal communication
networks. News Deserts: Places and Spaces Without
News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Usher, N. (2023). The real problems with the problem of
news deserts: Towards rooting place, precision, and
positionality in scholarship on local news and democracy.
Political Communication, 40(2), 238–253.
Vogler, D., Weston, M., & Udris, L. (2023). Investigating
news deserts on the content level: Geographical
diversity in Swiss news media. News Deserts: Places
and Spaces Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.
Wang, R. Y. (2023). The geography of newspaper circulations:
A spatial taxonomy of “news(paper) deserts”
in the United States. News Deserts: Places and Spaces
Without News, 11(3), XX–XX.

Permalink -

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/95yq8/places-and-spaces-without-news-the-contested-phenomenon-of-news-deserts

  • 93
    total views
  • 48
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Explanatory memorandum, local and regional media: watchdogs of democracy, guardians of community cohesion
Gulyas, A. 2023. Explanatory memorandum, local and regional media: watchdogs of democracy, guardians of community cohesion. Council of Europe.
Local and community media in Europe. A comparative analysis of the media pluralism monitor data between 2020 and 2023
Gulyas, A. 2023. Local and community media in Europe. A comparative analysis of the media pluralism monitor data between 2020 and 2023. San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) Italy European University Institute. https://doi.org/10.2870/94027
News deserts: Places and spaces without news
Gulyas, A., Jenkins, J. and Bergstrom, A. 2023. News deserts: Places and spaces without news. cogitatio. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.i363
The three ‘Cs’ of digital local journalism: Community, commitment and continuity
Gulyas, A. and Hess, K. 2023. The three ‘Cs’ of digital local journalism: Community, commitment and continuity. Digital Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2211639
Management actions to address the climate emergency: Motivations and barriers for SMEs and other societal micro/meso-level groups
O'Leary, S., Lieberman, S., Gulyas, A., Ogilvie, M., Bates, D., Heath, T., Pelz, C., Williams, S. and Shalet, D. 2023. Management actions to address the climate emergency: Motivations and barriers for SMEs and other societal micro/meso-level groups. The International Journal of Management Education. 21 (3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2023.100831
The climate emergency across business, community and campaign groups: Motivations and barriers to driving change for the common good
O'Leary, S., Lieberman, S., Gulyas, A., Ogilvie, M., Bates, D., Heath, T., Pelz, C., Williams, S. and Shalet, D. 2022. The climate emergency across business, community and campaign groups: Motivations and barriers to driving change for the common good. Graduate College Working Papers.
The climate emergency across business, community and campaign groups: motivations and barriers to driving change for the common good
O'Leary, S., Gulyas, A., Lieberman, S., Ogilvie, M., Bates, D., Heath, T. and Shalet, D. 2022. The climate emergency across business, community and campaign groups: motivations and barriers to driving change for the common good. Graduate College Working Papers.
Ethical implications of key concepts and issues in current local media research
Gulyas, A. and Baines, D. 2021. Ethical implications of key concepts and issues in current local media research. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. 18 (3/4), pp. 7-19.
Local news deserts
Gulyas, A. 2021. Local news deserts. in: Reappraising Local and Community News in the UK: Media, Practice and Policy Routledge.
Experiencing local news online: audience practices and perceptions
Gulyas, A., O'Hara, S. and Eilenberg, J. 2018. Experiencing local news online: audience practices and perceptions. Journalism Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1539345
Social media and small non profit organisations
Gulyas, A. 2016. Social media and small non profit organisations.
Social media and journalism: hybridity, convergence, changing relationship with the audience and fragmentation
Gulyas, A. 2016. Social media and journalism: hybridity, convergence, changing relationship with the audience and fragmentation. in: Franklin, B. and Eldridge, S. (ed.) Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies Routledge.
Hybridity and social media adoption by journalists: an international comparison
Gulyas, A. 2016. Hybridity and social media adoption by journalists: an international comparison. Digital Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1232170
What is community?
Gulyas, A. 2015. What is community?
Transformative potentials of social media in communities
Gulyas, A. 2015. Transformative potentials of social media in communities.
Social media and community volunteering
Gulyas, A. 2015. Social media and community volunteering.
Evolving social media practices of journalists: an international comparative study
Gulyas, A. 2014. Evolving social media practices of journalists: an international comparative study.
Social media adoption and digital literacy in small third sector organisations
Gulyas, A. 2015. Social media adoption and digital literacy in small third sector organisations.
Public service media in local communities: a case study from England
Gulyas, A. 2013. Public service media in local communities: a case study from England. in: Gulyas, A. and Hammer, F. (ed.) Public Service Media In The Digital Age: International Perspectives Newcastle Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 139-154
Social media and journalism study 2013 - Finland
Pole, K. and Gulyas, A. 2013. Social media and journalism study 2013 - Finland. Frankfurt Cision Europe.
Global Social Journalism Study 2015
Pole, K. and Gulyas, A. 2015. Global Social Journalism Study 2015. Chicago Cision US.
Social Journalism Study 2013 - United Kingdom
Pole, K. and Gulyas, A. 2013. Social Journalism Study 2013 - United Kingdom. Frankfurt Cision Germany.
2013 social journalism study: how journalists view and use social media and their relationship with PR
Pole, K. and Gulyas, A. 2013. 2013 social journalism study: how journalists view and use social media and their relationship with PR. Germany Cision Germany.
Social media and journalism study 2013 - Sweden
Pole, K. and Gulyas, A. 2013. Social media and journalism study 2013 - Sweden. Germany Cision Germany.
Social journalism study 2015: United Kingdom
Pole, K. and Gulyas, A. 2015. Social journalism study 2015: United Kingdom. Germany Cision Germany.
Social Journalism Study 2014 - Finland
Pole, K., Gulyas, A. and Cision.de 2014. Social Journalism Study 2014 - Finland. Cision Finland Cision Germany.
'Social Journalism' Studie 2012-2013 - Deutschland
Pole, K., Gulyas, A., Rehkopf, F., Cision Germany and Canterbury Christ Church University 2013. 'Social Journalism' Studie 2012-2013 - Deutschland. Frankfurt Cision Germany.
Journalists views and use of social media: Cision Social Journalism Study 2012: global report
Pole, K., Gulyas, A., Rehkopf, F., Cision Germany and Canterbury Christ Church University 2012. Journalists views and use of social media: Cision Social Journalism Study 2012: global report. Frankfurt Cision Germany.
Demons into angels? Corporate social responsibility and media organisations
Gulyas, A. 2011. Demons into angels? Corporate social responsibility and media organisations. Critical Survey. 23 (2), pp. 56-74. https://doi.org/10.3167/cs.2011.230205
MediaMorphosis: the political economy of the print media in east central Europe during the first decade of the post-Communist era
Gulyas, A. 2011. MediaMorphosis: the political economy of the print media in east central Europe during the first decade of the post-Communist era. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.
Changing business models and adaptation strategies of local newspapers
Gulyas, A. 2012. Changing business models and adaptation strategies of local newspapers. in: Mair, J., Fowler, N. and Reeves, I. (ed.) What Do We Mean By Local? Bury St Edmunds Arima.
The influence of professional variables on journalists' uses and views of social media: a comparative study of Finland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom
Gulyas, A. 2013. The influence of professional variables on journalists' uses and views of social media: a comparative study of Finland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Digital Journalism. 1 (2). https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2012.744559
Responsible press organisations?
Gulyas, A. 2007. Responsible press organisations?
European integration and East Central European media
Gulyas, A. 2007. European integration and East Central European media.
Regional media in crisis? Structural and environmental challenges in the media in Kent
Gulyas, A. 2010. Regional media in crisis? Structural and environmental challenges in the media in Kent.
Changing production ecology of regional media
Gulyas, A. 2010. Changing production ecology of regional media.
Democratisation and the mass media in Post-Communist Hungary
Gulyas, A. 2002. Democratisation and the mass media in Post-Communist Hungary. Media Development. 49 (1), pp. 33-38.
Tabloid newspapers in post-communist Hungary
Gulyas, A. 1998. Tabloid newspapers in post-communist Hungary. Javnost - The Public, Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture. 5 (3), pp. 65-77.
Kolonizacia medii alebo triumf trhovej liberalizacie? (Media colonisation or the triumph of market liberalization?)
Gulyas, A. 1998. Kolonizacia medii alebo triumf trhovej liberalizacie? (Media colonisation or the triumph of market liberalization?). Otazky Zurnalistiky (Problems of Journalism - Journal of Theory, Research and Practice Means of Mass Communication). 41 (2), pp. 99-107.
In the slow lane on the information superhighway: Hungary and the information revolution
Gulyas, A. 1998. In the slow lane on the information superhighway: Hungary and the information revolution. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 4 (2), pp. 76-92.
Structural changes and organisations in the print media markets of Post-Communist East Central Europe
Gulyas, A. 1999. Structural changes and organisations in the print media markets of Post-Communist East Central Europe. Javnost - The Public. 6 (2), pp. 61-74.
The development of the tabloid press in Hungary
Gulyas, A. 2000. The development of the tabloid press in Hungary. in: Sparks, C. and Tulloch, J. (ed.) Tabloid Tales: Global Debates over Media Standards Lanham, USA Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 111-128
Researching transition
Gulyas, A. 2003. Researching transition. in: Van Hoven, B. (ed.) Europe: Lives in Transition Harlow Pearson Education. pp. 48-49
Public images and private lives: the case of Hungary
Gulyas, A. 2004. Public images and private lives: the case of Hungary. Parliamentary Affairs. 57 (1), pp. 67-79. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsh006
Communist media economics and the consumers: the case of print media of East Central Europe
Gulyas, A. 2001. Communist media economics and the consumers: the case of print media of East Central Europe. The International Journal on Media Management. 3 (2), pp. 74-81.
Print media in Post-Communist East Central Europe
Gulyas, A. 2003. Print media in Post-Communist East Central Europe. European Journal of Communication. 18 (1), pp. 81-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323103018001227
Western influences in the print media of Post-Communist East-Central Europe
Gulyas, A. 2004. Western influences in the print media of Post-Communist East-Central Europe. The Journal of International Communication. 10 (1), pp. 108-130.
European integration and East Central European media
Gulyas, A. 2006. European integration and East Central European media. in: Højbjerg, L. and Søndergaard, H. (ed.) European Film and Media Culture Copenhagen Museum Tusculanums Forlag. pp. 63-90
Corporate social responsibility in the British media industries: preliminary findings
Gulyas, A. 2009. Corporate social responsibility in the British media industries: preliminary findings. Media, Culture & Society. 31 (4), pp. 657-668. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443709335281