seen and heard ica presentation 5.22.15
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Seen and Heard:A mixed-methods approach to studying
the local news ecosystemJesse HolcombSenior researcher, Pew Research Center@jesseholcomb
April 15, 2023 3www.pewresearch.org
Deep, not wide
• The single-lens challenge of past research (nat’l surveys, content analysis)
• Limited methods can render incomplete picture of the ecosystem
• As more journalism happens outside of newsrooms, mixed methods can help capture nuances
• Can also help tease out relationship between behaviors/attitudes/news resources/coverage
April 15, 2023 4www.pewresearch.org
Goal: A holistic view of the metropolitan news ecosystem
• Where does news come from?
• How is it consumed?
• How do publics and non-journalistic actors participate?
April 15, 2023 5www.pewresearch.org
Case study approach, x3
• Get beyond Eastern Seaboard (Denver (Colo.), Sioux City (Iowa), Macon (Ga.)
• Reflect different-sized markets and population makeup• Methods included: • Mail survey• Content analysis• Groundwork (identifying & categorizing news providers)• Pulled data from Twitter firehose & scraped Facebook API• Direct interviews & site visits
• Resulted in a portrait of the local news ecosystem that better accounts for non-institutional news providers
April 15, 2023 6www.pewresearch.org
Three observations
• A heterogeneous news environment ≠ a more news-engaged population
• Social, mobile are now key to local news environment. But old habits perpetuate broadcast flow of news
• Informal news sources play complimentary role, but may be more important than we think
April 15, 2023 7www.pewresearch.org
Observation #1
A heterogeneous news environment ≠ a more news-engaged population.
April 15, 2023 8www.pewresearch.org
Denver shows richness of big metro news landscape
Denver Macon Sioux City
Total News Providers 143 24 31Providers w/ Weekly Content 52 12 17
April 15, 2023 12www.pewresearch.org
Digital groundswell is a supplemental news source
• Communities of interest, but no critical mass• In one week, niche/specialty outlets accounted for 35% of
Denver news content• The 14 digital-native sites accounted for one-tenth of that
Ken Hamel, publisher, DenverArts.org:
“It’s weird. I know I have a bunch of passionate followers and I know a bunch of people…but when you look at the core numbers, I have about 1,200 or 1,500 people on Facebook, which is more than average, but it’s not a lot. And I have only 900 people who sign up for the newsletter, which has been the same for six years.”
April 15, 2023 13www.pewresearch.org
Mixed methods yielded new insights
• Survey/content analysis/direct interviews allowed us to measure output and reach of small, hyperlocal news providers.
• Raises question: is there less of a “civic information commons” in a large metro area than in a small one?
April 15, 2023 14www.pewresearch.org
Observation #2
Social, mobile are now key to local news environment. But old habits perpetuate broadcast flow of news.
April 15, 2023 15www.pewresearch.org
Few comment; conversation dissipates rapidly
• Scraped public Facebook API to study news providers in each community. Found little evidence of the public extending the life of a local news story there.
April 15, 2023 16www.pewresearch.org
On Twitter, local news is needle in a haystack
• Little discussion of local news among users studied
• When news was discussed, it was mostly national or otherwise distant affairs (mostly politics)
• Denver: the top local story URL (a sports item) appeared just 237 times out of 3.2 million tweets.
• Sioux City: the local content w/ most shares on Twitter was weather (a link to the local weather cam appeared 24 times).
• Macon: the data show what CAN happen when a local story gets big (local band competes in VH1 contest). But the next-most shared local story was shared just 22 times during our 5-day analysis period.
April 15, 2023 17www.pewresearch.org
Outbound linking is still rare among publishers
We measured frequency of linking in digital news stories over the course of a week.
• DENVER: 31% contained links
• MACON: 3% contained links
• SIOUX CITY: 1% contained links
April 15, 2023 18www.pewresearch.org
Structural barriers still impede flow of information
• Obstacle #1) Broadband access and adoption
• Obstacle #2) Device ownership
• Obstacle #3) Language and community segregation
April 15, 2023 20www.pewresearch.org
Observation #3
Informal news sources play supplementary role, but may be more important than we know.
April 15, 2023 21www.pewresearch.org
Danger of systematic error
• Easier to identify institutional journalism organizations than it is to identify informal, nascent or out-of-category ones (especially in local).
• Can skew the narrative about how local journalism is changing.
April 15, 2023 22www.pewresearch.org
Key spaces for local news conversation hard to access
• Listservs
• Private Facebook networks
• Face-to-face and other word of mouth
April 15, 2023 23www.pewresearch.org
How we captured
• Self-report (open-ends)
• Blog crawls and snowballing
• Aggregation of lists/databases cataloguing local, digital news efforts
• Search engine
• Direct interview
April 15, 2023 25www.pewresearch.org
News Organizations & Journalists Most Followed on Social Networks
April 15, 2023 26www.pewresearch.org
Informal news sources that quant research might not have captured
• Alex Habersham (Macon Black Pages)
• Paul Lopez (Denver City Councilman)
• Lockup: Sioux City
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