Mining a news desert: The impact of a local newspaper’s closure on political participation and engagement in the rural Australian town of Lightning Ridge
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines how a local newspaper’s closure impacts the way everyday people in a rural Australian town are informed about and engage with political affairs. It draws on a two-month focused ethnographic study in the outback town of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, and explores people’s media-related practices following the closure of the town’s only newspaper, The Ridge News, in 2015. While social media is considered to have partly filled a news void, there is an increasingly fragmented and less vibrant local public sphere that has led to growing complacency among individuals about political affairs. Local residents highlight a dearth of reliable, credible information and lament the loss of the newspaper and its role in community advocacy and fostering people’s engagement with political institutions, especially local government.
Source: The Australian Journalism Review
DOI: 10.1386/ajr_00059_7
Authors: Marco Magasic, Kristy Hess
Institution: Deakin University
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3196039166