Putting local journalism on the map ... literally

'Place' and 'space' are important concepts in local journalism studies, with scholars often turning to Castells (2010), Creswell (2004), Bourdieu (1984, 1998) or Massey (1994) for theories that help them understand different perceptions of place, space, boundaries, community, home and local.

With all this place-based thinking going on, it isn't surprising to find out that researchers regularly turn to mapping to help them explore their local journalism topics. What is a bit puzzling is that many of them are mapping metaphorically rather than literally - they are not creating a map, they are instead outlining the topic, providing an overview, listing the issues, tracking trends.

There are few who are literally mapping local journalism - by this I mean, not many scholars are using cartography as a method in their research. There are some notable exceptions, Lindgren (2022) for example has been using Google Maps to help her and her colleagues understand changes in Canada's media ecology for several years now. But even these pioneering scholars, and others following their lead (for example PIJI, 2022), are not doing the mapping themselves, they instead enlist the help of specialists in areas such as GIS (geographic information systems).

And now I know why! Mapping is hard work. Using digital cartographic software is time consuming, tricky and technical - it's not something I've found easy to pick up and run with. And as a PhD student needing to conduct field work and produce an 80,000-word thesis while working and dealing with life in general, allocating time to learn a big new piece of software is pretty difficult. I wonder if this is what has been deterring other local journalism scholars from adopting this method?

I hope the work I have managed to achieve so far in this field (basic as it may be) will show that there are benefits to using digital cartography to literally map the local journalism field, most notably in the areas of visual analysis and communication. And doing it yourself is worth it, as I have full control over the maps and the data - something other scholars, who are using external resources to produce their maps, miss out on. I've been using mapping to explore themes such as demographics, digital connectivity, natural disasters, geography and news ecology.

You can check out my work by clicking on this link to view it via StoryMap: https://arcg.is/5Wvbu