Hip to be Hyper

Abstract

Local news is nothing new, but there is an unmistakable hype around its reinvention in the digital age through the hyperlocal phenomena. This article applies the lens of subculture theory to move beyond questions related to who produces hyperlocal news, how to pay for it and its democratic potential, to focus on its social and cultural values and meanings. In doing so, it engages with the normative and political economy approaches that dominate this niche of journalism studies. We argue that a cultural approach can generate much-needed critical perspectives on the significance of what we term “excessively local news” and the future of mainstream journalism in this globalized world. In the process, it challenges media scholars and practitioners who cleave to traditional hierarchies of value about what hyperlocal news is and should be, even at the risk of being unfashionable in the digital age.

Keywords:

• community
• cultural approach
• hyperlocal news
• journalism subculture
• local news
• subculture theory

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the work of research assistant Monica Andrew who conducted the scoping review of the literature. We are also grateful to Dr Tanja Dreher of the University of Wollongong for her valuable feedback and suggestions.

Notes

1. It is our contention that hyperlocal differs from alternative community media. The latter is often constructed and united by cause and seeks to affect change, especially in the political sphere (Howley 2010).

2. Sheridan Burns explains that while the word news describes “the things journalists write about”, it has been in use for at least 500 years—“well before newspapers were around” (Sheridan Burns 2002, 49–51).

3. Conducted by research assistant Monica Andrew. Search terms for the scoping review included hyperlocal, new media entrepreneurship, start-ups, local media, small media. It involved all key international scholarly databases and a Google search of popular content.

4. According to van Kerkhoven and Bakker (2014, 297), American TV cable operators first coined the term “hyperlocal” in the 1980s to describe local TV content.

5. This is not to say that subcultures cannot be globally dispersed.

6. We have argued elsewhere that while community is associated with feelings such as collectivity, shared identity and collegiality, it masks complex power relations and has a dark side (Hess 2013b; Hess and Waller 2014a).

7. Zines are largely considered to be produced by people between the ages of 18 and 35, however, we do not narrow the demographic focus of the hyperlocal subculture (see Poletti 2005).

8. Tönnies’ Gemeinschaft values are especially significant to this discussion as they have also been adopted in some studies about local media. Gemeinschaft values relate to intimate and enduring human relationships, close-knit ties and kinship (Tönnies 1957).