Christopher Ali
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040726
- eISBN:
- 9780252099168
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040726.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Local media is at a turning point. Legacy outlets – television and newspapers – are declining while emerging platforms are failing to take their place. When it comes to the policies and regulations ...
More
Local media is at a turning point. Legacy outlets – television and newspapers – are declining while emerging platforms are failing to take their place. When it comes to the policies and regulations governing local television, regulators are struggling to address audience gravitation and fragmentation, the declining commercial viability of broadcasting, and the ongoing crisis of journalism. In an era of digital platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, regulators are also grappling with a question they had never anticipated: What does it mean to be local in the digital age? The lack of an answer has left them unsure of how to define a locality, what counts as local news, if the information needs of communities are being met, and the larger role of local media in a democracy. Through comparative analysis, Media Localism explains, assesses, and critiques these issues and asks how communication regulators in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom defined, mobilized and regulated “the local” in broadcasting from 2000 to 2012. Using critical theories of space and place, critical regionalism and critical political economy, and based on document analysis and interviews, Ali offers a fresh approach to localism in media policy. Through policy critique and intervention Ali argues that it is only through redefining the scope of localism that regulators can properly understand and encourage local media in the 21st century.Less
Local media is at a turning point. Legacy outlets – television and newspapers – are declining while emerging platforms are failing to take their place. When it comes to the policies and regulations governing local television, regulators are struggling to address audience gravitation and fragmentation, the declining commercial viability of broadcasting, and the ongoing crisis of journalism. In an era of digital platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, regulators are also grappling with a question they had never anticipated: What does it mean to be local in the digital age? The lack of an answer has left them unsure of how to define a locality, what counts as local news, if the information needs of communities are being met, and the larger role of local media in a democracy. Through comparative analysis, Media Localism explains, assesses, and critiques these issues and asks how communication regulators in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom defined, mobilized and regulated “the local” in broadcasting from 2000 to 2012. Using critical theories of space and place, critical regionalism and critical political economy, and based on document analysis and interviews, Ali offers a fresh approach to localism in media policy. Through policy critique and intervention Ali argues that it is only through redefining the scope of localism that regulators can properly understand and encourage local media in the 21st century.
Christopher Ali
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040726
- eISBN:
- 9780252099168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040726.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In Chapter 6, the case studies are analyzed through the frameworks of critical regionalism and critical political economy. The first section describes how a political economy of localism has come to ...
More
In Chapter 6, the case studies are analyzed through the frameworks of critical regionalism and critical political economy. The first section describes how a political economy of localism has come to exist within media policy discourse. This system favors the status quo over alternatives, tethers local media exclusively to specific places, and impedes our ability to think through ways to bridge the spatial and social divides of localism. The second section reintroduces critical regionalism as an approach that tempers this political economy. The chapter argues that while the political economy of localism works to stifle policy alternatives, there are policy windows – “moments of critical regionalism” – that require our attention. The chapter offers a definition of media localism based on critical regionalism and the case studies.Less
In Chapter 6, the case studies are analyzed through the frameworks of critical regionalism and critical political economy. The first section describes how a political economy of localism has come to exist within media policy discourse. This system favors the status quo over alternatives, tethers local media exclusively to specific places, and impedes our ability to think through ways to bridge the spatial and social divides of localism. The second section reintroduces critical regionalism as an approach that tempers this political economy. The chapter argues that while the political economy of localism works to stifle policy alternatives, there are policy windows – “moments of critical regionalism” – that require our attention. The chapter offers a definition of media localism based on critical regionalism and the case studies.
Christopher Ali
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040726
- eISBN:
- 9780252099168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040726.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Chapter 1 unpacks the theoretical foundations and analytical frameworks of the local by thematically mapping its various interpretations throughout critical political economy, critical theory, and ...
More
Chapter 1 unpacks the theoretical foundations and analytical frameworks of the local by thematically mapping its various interpretations throughout critical political economy, critical theory, and critical geography. The chapter begins with a conversation about the local in everyday life and then moves on to conceptual and critical understandings of the local, space, place, and community, analyzing the themes of “local as place,” “local as community,” “local as market,” “local as resistive,” and “local as fetish.” Throughout these interrelated discussions, examples are drawn from local media in the United States, the UK, and Canada. The ultimate goal of this chapter is to move the reader toward a more holistic understanding of the local as developed in the theory of critical regionalism.Less
Chapter 1 unpacks the theoretical foundations and analytical frameworks of the local by thematically mapping its various interpretations throughout critical political economy, critical theory, and critical geography. The chapter begins with a conversation about the local in everyday life and then moves on to conceptual and critical understandings of the local, space, place, and community, analyzing the themes of “local as place,” “local as community,” “local as market,” “local as resistive,” and “local as fetish.” Throughout these interrelated discussions, examples are drawn from local media in the United States, the UK, and Canada. The ultimate goal of this chapter is to move the reader toward a more holistic understanding of the local as developed in the theory of critical regionalism.
