Breaking Boundaries

Hess, Kristy

doi:10.1080/21670811.2012.714933

Cited by 77 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, digital media technologies have reconfigured the meaning of notions such as ''community'', ''space'' and ''place''. Drawing on the literature on these notions, Hess (2012) proposes the term ''geo-social'' to conceptualise online news that is still geographically bound but consumed in the boundless and open social space of the internet. In a similar vein, Baines (2010) shows how Web-based hyperlocal news sites expose processes of ''glocalisation'', as they position geographically isolated communities both locally and globally in the networked digital media environment.…”

Section: Hyperlocal Journalism: Online News From Townmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Citizens for Community Journalism

Paulussen¹,

D’heer²

2013

Journalism Practice

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Section: Hyperlocal Journalism: Online News From Townmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Citizens for Community Journalism

Paulussen¹,

D’heer²

2013

Journalism Practice

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“…I have drawn inspiration from these approaches to generate the concept of "mediated social capital" (Hess 2013a) which I define as the power of the news media to connect people, both consciously and unconsciously, across various social, economic and cultural spaces and to link people with those in positions of power (Hess 2013a, 113). It also recognises the ability of the news media to control the information that brings people together in physical and digital spaces (see Hess 2013aHess , 2013b. This social power is a resource that commercial news media may utilise to maintain or build a position of advantage.…”

Section: Towards "Mediated Social Capital"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This power is at times subtle and entrenched in individuals' everyday practices. I have argued elsewhere that local newspapers are best understood in a "geo-social" context to help theorise and contextualise their place in a digital world (Hess 2013b). Scholars such as Franklin (2006), for example, argue that today's local newspapers are "local" in name only and the town or city emblazoned on the newspaper masthead may be one of the few remaining local features of a paper.…”

Section: Bondingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bonding may be understood as the news media's ability to foster, both consciously and unconsciously, the idea of "community", "close ties" or "psychological bonds" that audiences have with the "places" and networks that news outlets serve. This is based on their continued and powerful role as important nodes in global information flows and spaces and the symbolic power to construct reality (Hess 2013b). It provides scope to consider that in the digital age, people may not necessarily live in the geographic area that a "local" newspaper serves but they have an affinity with the publication generated by a "sense of place".…”

Section: Bondingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making Connections

Hess¹

2014

Journalism Studies

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The future of the traditional news media in the changing digital landscape is a topic of much scholarship and debate as newspaper circulations and advertising revenues plummet across the globe and audiences become increasingly spoilt for choice when it comes to accessing news and information. At the same time there has been a flurry of interest in the role and place of small news outlets dubbed local, community and regional publications. This paper aims to theorise the role and place of small newspapers to connect people with each other. In doing so, it reconceptualises the theory of social capital as it relates to small newspapers. It argues that the small-town press is in a particularly powerful position to actively connect people with each other, across physical and digital spaces and public/private domains. It also argues the need to recognise and study the more subtle ways news outlets foster connections between everyday, ordinary people. I draw on the concept of "mediated social capital" and its associated prisms of bonding, bridging and linking as a way of understanding this in regards to small newspapers. "Mediated social capital", repositions social capital theory to consider the small newspaper's ability to connect people as a resource of advantage which it may utilise to build or maintain its position of power. The concept provides scope to consider the role of local media to consciously and unconsciously connect people within its networks with one another, across digital and physical spaces, to control the information that connects people, and to benefit from that power. It also acknowledges the inequalities that may arise from this. Importantly, mediated social capital extends beyond discussions about the democratic ideal of the press to acknowledge the role of the news media in shaping the everyday interactions and situations in which people might connect with one another.

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“…In the global North governments have increasingly used the slippery term 'community' as a catch-all substitute for sub-state levels of governance. 44 As central government withdraws from traditional areas of provision (especially related to welfare) then community responses are supposed to take over and utilise local knowledge and resources. Newman observed that 'The local was constituted as a self-governing entity charged with maximizing its own "assets" and mobilising its own population as problem-solvers, volunteers, and resource mobilisers'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where is the local? Critical localism and peacebuilding

Ginty

2015

Third World Quarterly

181

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This article is primarily a piece of conceptual scoping and considers the concept of 'the local' in relation to peacebuilding. It notes how the local is simultaneously held to blame for conflicts (as unenlightened, dangerous, uncivilised) and is also regarded as a saviour for international peace support operations. Local legitimacy, partnership and ownership of international peace interventions are seen as a fast track to success, sustainability and exit. The article navigates its way around this confused understanding of the local and argues that the local is a (not always helpful) construction. It further argues that, by applying a critical lens towards the concept of the local, we can seek to separate the concept of the local from territory and see it in terms of activity, networks and relationships. This has implications for practice and 'field' work.

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Breaking Boundaries

Cited by 77 publications

References 24 publications

Using Citizens for Community Journalism

Using Citizens for Community Journalism

Making Connections

Where is the local? Critical localism and peacebuilding

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