Local and suburban newspapers have not generally received a ‘good press’, at least in the relevant academic literature. This article argues that it is time to reconsider the roles and responsibilities of these newspapers in the light of discussions surrounding the nature of community and of community cohesion and conservatism, as well as the relationship of the local to the global. A case study of two Gold Coast newspapers — a suburban and a daily — concludes that, while the suburban paper relies on traditional hard news journalism with little overt recognition of community, the daily pursues a ‘sometimes obsessive’ search for local meaning, image and identity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Asia Pacific Media Educator2001, January-June, no. 10
2.
BeilharzP.1996, ‘Citizens of Cites’, Thesis Eleven, no. 46, pp. 89–95
3.
BilligM.1995, Banal Nationalism, Sage, London
4.
ElgarK.1996, ‘In Defence of Stuart Littlemore: An Angel of Liberation?’, Australian Journalism Review, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 7–12
5.
FlynnD.1994, ‘Local Newspapers: A Door into the Community’, The Sydney Papers, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 96–103
6.
FranklinB.MurphyD.1991, What News? The Market, Politics and the Local Press, Routledge, London
7.
FranklinB. (eds) 1998, Making the Local News: Local Journalism in Context, Routledge, London
8.
CancliniN. Garcia1995, Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
9.
GreenbergB.1964, ‘Community Press as Perceived by its Editors and Readers’, Journalism Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 437–40
10.
GriffinG.1999, ‘Local Journalist Makes Good: Cultural Geography and Contemporary Journalism’, Australian Journalism Review, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 17–36
11.
HarariF.1994, ‘Community Comeback’, Australian, 24–25 December, Review, pp. 1–2
12.
HippocratesC.1988, ‘Suburban Newspapers: Australia's New Journalism’, Australian Journalism Review, no. 10, pp. 189–97
13.
HoganT.1996, ‘Citizenship, Australian and Global’, Thesis Eleven, no. 46. pp. 97–114
14.
HolstonJ.AppaduraiA.1996, ‘Cities and Citizenship’, Public Culture, no. 8, pp. 187–204
15.
HurstJ.ProvisM.1996, ‘The Relationship Between Local Government and the News Media’, Media International Australia, no. 82, pp. 108–19
16.
JanowitzM.1952, The Community Press in an Urban Setting, Free Press, Glencoe, II
17.
KannisP.1991, Making Local News, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
18.
KillibyC.1994, ‘Relationships Between Country Newspapers and Community Ties’, Australian Studies in Journalism, no. 1, pp. 275–89
19.
MowbrayM.1988, ‘So They've Hijacked Our Media: The Problem of the Local Press’, Media Information Australia, no. 49, pp. 41–49
20.
MullinsP.1995, ‘Households, Consumerism, and Household Consumption’, in TroyP. (ed.), Australian Cities: Issues, Strategies and Policies for Urban Australia in the 1990s, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 87–109
21.
StimsonR. (2001) ‘Dividing Societies: The Socio-Political Spatial Implications of Restructuring in Australia’, Australian Geographical Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 198–216
22.
TomlinsonJ.1999, Globalization and Culture, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
23.
TurnerG.2001, ‘Reshaping Australian Institutions: Popular Culture, the Market and the Public Sphere’, in BennettT.CarterD. (eds), Culture in Australia: Politics, Publics and Programs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 161–75
24.
van VuurenK.2001, ‘A Newsroom of our Own? Community Radio and the News, Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, no. 99, pp. 77–89
25.
VinesJ.2001, ‘News Values and Country Non-Daily Reporting’, Asia Pacific Media Educator, no. 10, pp. 38–48
26.
WaisbordS.1998, ‘When the Cart of Media is Before the Horse of Identity: A Critique of Techno-Centred Views on Globalization’, Communication Research, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 377–99
