Who Gets Vocal About Hyperlocal

Abstract

This study examined the characteristics of readers who share hyperlocal news in person, over email, and through social media. A reader survey of 10 hyperlocal news websites that operate in a variety of communities in the United States was conducted (n = 2289). More readers indicated sharing hyperlocal news in person than through email or social media. Higher neighborhood involvement and higher education tended to characterize readers who shared hyperlocal news via each of the three channels. Education moderated the association between neighborhood involvement and sharing news in person and via social media. These results suggested that highly involved readers with little education used social media more than their highly educated neighbors to share news from hyperlocal websites. The study extends the precepts of channel complementarity theory into the domain of online news sharing.

KEYWORDS:

• channel complementarity theory
• hyperlocal news websites
• neighborhood involvement
• news sharing
• opinion leadership
• quantitative research
• reader survey

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their gratitude to Dr Barbara Barnett for guiding a class project that became the foundation of this study.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Piotr S. Bobkowski

Web: http://journalism.ku.edu/peter-bobkowski

Nathan J. Rodriguez

Web: https://www.uwsp.edu/comm/Pages/Faculty/Rodriguez.aspx