(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
local media, despite these offering rich and nuanced fields of inquiry because they have more
direct, everyday relationships with the communities of which they are a part, and arguably a
stronger impact on their audiences (Couldry & Curran 2003). The media is instrumental in
the construction and maintenance of culture and identity at all levels of society (Hall 1992)
but in Australia, it is at the regional level that the most powerful and durable expressions of
identity have been formulated and embedded in public thinking. Regional communities rely
on the local media’s representation of their citizens’ characteristics, behaviour and values,
and public issues and events as the main means for recognising and ‘knowing’ the
community. This recognition process includes the establishment and maintenance of a set of
powerful ‘norms’ of behaviour, appearance and characteristics for community members and
‘outsiders’, which Ewart says are ‘played out through the texts of regional newspapers’, and
are:
…sometimes more abiding and powerful than those seen in metropolitan media, and
even those promoted by other cultural institutions. This is partly because of the power
of the media generally, but it is also due to the unique place, space and role of
regional media in a community .(Ewart 1997, p. 109)
Michael Schudson says the mass media carry a great deal of symbolic freight in regional
identity, more than they know. They help to ‘establish in the imagination of people a
psychologically potent entity – “a community” that can be located nowhere on the ground
(Schudson 1995, p. 15). Michael Meadows has described the regional media’s methods of
constructing and maintaining social norms as ‘consensus narratives’(Meadows 1998) which
not only convey these social codes to audiences but also instruct them in how to respond to
events. He says the regional media can be understood as the glue that binds community
members into a social collective or ‘media public’ through its representation of these norms,
which are held to be typical of dominant interests.
Despite its celebrated community-building function, changes to the media landscape are
creating more options for newspaper readers and fragmenting audiences and the regional
media is not immune to this. Potter (Potter 2005) says technological changes, coupled with
economic pressures, have forced regional newspapers to constantly ensure that content is
meeting the needs of the readership. In Potter’s opinion, while the paper’s long-standing
relationship with its readers is attached to the masthead, loyalty and historical links may not
be enough to guarantee survival in a rapidly changing media environment and “content” is
crucial to maintaining a successful newspaper.
Some experts argue that in a convergence culture print media has a bleak future. Former UK
journalist Roy Greenslade who is a professor of journalism at London’s City University,
argues popular newspapers are dying and will disappear as the internet and websites continue
to build strength. (Greenslade, 2007) Other analysts such as Paul Bradshaw, claim that the
internet has released news organisations from the limitations of physical distribution and
broadcast and they are able to find new markets for their old print products. He says the key
focus for news organisations should be concepts such as interactivity, community and the
conversation with their consumers. So while forces of globalism may push towards a
homogenous online product, these analysts see the counter force as being consumers
becoming more focused on their own backyard, or what has been referred t as “postcode
news” (see Bradshaw 2007)
Kathryn Bowd argues newspaper’s roles in providing local news and a forum for discussion
have arguably become even more central to community life (Bowd 2009). These newspapers
are considered a vital asset to a community (Stamm, Emig & M.B. 1997) and are important to
build and support community social capital. The way in which local media facilitate local
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