The good news

The Good News

Social media has changed where we discuss and debate the issues of the day, and the platforms’ push for “scale” has grown both the number of users and the number of connections in our networks. Online, we’re as likely to be talking with strangers or people further at the edges of our “IRL” social network as we are a close friend or neighbor. Offline, it’s uncommon to bump into your geographically distant friends and relatives. Online, it’s almost a certainty (even if they make up a relatively small share of your Facebook network).

It makes sense, then, that we’re likely to see and share more content about national politics, celebrity news, or ideas and issues that don’t depend on geography. Researchers have found that media consumption is increasingly focused on national outlets and subjects. The question is whether it’s the availability of that information or a lack of interest driving the trend. Most of our industry today is convinced that if there were more local news, more people would read it. I’m not convinced. (I’m not alone.)

There’s fairly limited research available today on how local news is shared online; one group of Canadian researchers found that on Twitter, local news wasn’t widely shared. The news that was shared in local networks tended to be highly partisan, focused on opinion, or intended to promote a particular point of view.