{Local News Stories}

AN AWARENESS PROJECT TO PROMOTE LOCAL NEWS IN THE US

Introduction

Journalism is at a critical stage right now. Local news stories are at a decline due to the financial challenges faced by local news media companies. This decline is limiting the platforms on which the community can voice their opinions and is thus reducing community stories. Several platforms and industries including the advertisement, internet, mobile devices, information technology, and social media have contributed to changing the creation and sharing of news.

This project aims to give a historical rundown of the events which led to the decline of local journalism. The target audience is the people who have been influential in digitizing advertisements and news, people from journalism, and the readers of local and global news.

The research questions for this project include: what is news? How is news created and shared? What is local news? Why are local stories important? Is local news an endangered species? Why is local news important for community building? How have digital advertisements impacted the business model of news organizations? What led to the decline of print news? How has social media changed the way news is received and shared? What are the funding models of news organizations? This project unpacks and answers most of these questions.