Imagined commodities? Analyzing local identity and place in American community newspaper website banners

Abstract

American community newspapers, as well as larger daily publications, do little to articulate a sense of local identity or place in the banners of their websites, or their newspaper names atop the web page. Instead, newspapers routinely articulate a professional identity above a local one – often omitting the name of the community entirely, and only occasionally offering a major visual expression of the community. This complicates Benedict Anderson’s sense of ‘imagined communities’, which argues that local identity is constructed through clear articulation by print media; if newspaper websites ignore local identity in their banners, then community newspapers today are imaging commodity rather than community. This qualitative analysis of 40 American community newspapers and 80 daily American newspapers divides that local articulation into four categories (absent identity, secondary identity, equal identity and visual identity) and explores implications for the academy and newspaper industry.

Keywords

Articulation community journalism imagined community local news local online news online news website banners

Introduction

To Benedict Anderson (2006), the most important part of a newspaper is its banner, or the tangible details of a publication expressed at the top of its front page. Such banners forged artificial connections between a place, a language and a time that began to draw imaginary ideological and physical borders around an audience. In particular, the date ‘provides the essential connection – the steady onward clocking of homogeneous, empty time’ (Anderson, 2006). Print capitalism required that artificial symbiosis between place, time and publication to function; is it still so today, when newspapers have taken so fundamentally to the World Wide Web?

Certainly, the majority of content on most newspaper websites would resonate with Anderson’s argument; even a casual visitor is bombarded with expressions of time and place. Easily accessible headlines frequently mention locations both near and far, large photographs illustrate local events and hard-to-miss advertisements flash with local names and national brands. Also, any given Web news article may include maps, charts, tables, graphs or photos of its own. To Anderson (2006), though, the actual news content was secondary to the fundamental spatial associations formed by the act of regularly printing a newspaper. In traditional print publications, those associations are made most prominently on newspaper banners – items which are arguably design elements, rather than editorial tools.

Newspaper banners also provide a unique opportunity to analyze a newspaper’s expression of itself, rather than its expression of the news. It is the one place on a newspaper, in print or online, that is entirely under the control of the publication. The bulk of newspaper content is subject to the news and events of that particular day; banners, though, are disconnected from the ebb and flow of current events. As such, they supply prime texts for an updated analysis of Anderson’s ‘essential connection’ (Anderson, 2006).

That connection is particularly pertinent for American community newspapers, which traditionally have much stronger local ties than larger publications (Hume, 2005; Lauterer, 2006; Reader, 2006; Smethers et al., 2007). How, then, does that local orientation mesh with Anderson’s (2006) ‘essential connections?’ Do community newspapers articulate local identity and place on their website banners, and how might that local identity and place be considered using Stuart Hall’s (1980) theory of articulation?

A qualitative textual analysis of 120 randomly selected American newspapers, stratified by circulation size and regional geography, will answer this question. It will consider four designed categories concerning the articulation of local place and identity (absent identity, secondary identity, equal identity and visual identity) and discuss the implications of that articulation for the study of imagined communities and articulation theory.

Literature review

Local identity and place

This study seeks to determine how small weekly American newspapers, also known as ‘community newspapers’, articulate a sense of local place on their websites. As such, a review of academic literature concerning Benedict Anderson’s (2006) theory of nationalism, Stuart Hall’s (1980) articulation theory and assorted scholarship on modern community journalism is appropriate.

Benedict Anderson (2006) offers a thorough sociological analysis of nationalism. He argues that nations are arbitrary sociological creations, collections of ‘imagined communities’ held together by an artificial sense of brotherhood and connection among citizens. The genesis of such creation was the printing press, and the ability of media and ‘print capitalism’ to ground a connection between a time, a place and an audience in early modern Europe. By simply documenting a common history at a steady pace, and for a set population, print media effectively established intangible connections between its readers while determining common characteristics for its audience. Language and dialects became defined by local media, as did local traits and local ideals, and most importantly the boundaries constituting ideological and physical locality. All the individual members of a nation could only ever meet a fraction of their fellow citizenry for themselves; yet, by convincing a broad population of a common identity, Anderson argues, the nature and features of that population can be manipulated into forming arbitrary groups and coalitions – even nations – with individuals they have never met and places they will never see. Anderson (2006: 33–36) argues that:

The date at the top of the newspaper, the single most important emblem on it, provides the essential connection – the steady onward clocking of homogenous, empty time. Within that time, ‘the world’ ambles sturdily ahead … which made it possible for rapidly growing numbers of people to think about themselves, and to relate themselves to others, in profoundly new ways.

Scholarship has since expanded upon the artificial nature of Anderson’s (2006) nations. That scholarship is often aimed at traditional nationalism. Li (2009) found resistance among Chinese Internet users to a series of Japanese automobile advertisements depicting traditional Chinese symbols as subservient to foreign cars, despite growing economic and cultural ties between China and Japan; studies have also shown that borders retain their artificial, yet crucial, roles in delineating nationhood and set communities (Cubitt, 1989).

However, by depicting communities as imaginary, Anderson (2006) opened the door for widely flexible scholarship concerning other communities with equally conceptual membership. Diasporic and immigrant communities, for example, have demonstrated common cultural heritage and bonds despite dislocation across a number of national and practical boundaries (Lin et al., 2010; Shukla, 2003). Despite having a highly visible physical anchor, church groups and ‘faith communities’ tend to be imagined rather broadly (Cannon, 2007), and the O. J. Simpson trial of the 1990s ignited narratives of both traditional nationalism and modern crime in communities with absolutely no connection to the case (Silberstein, 2003). North America can also be considered not simply as a collection of a few nations, but a network of cultural nations united along ideological bonds, population trends, history and language (Garreau, 1982; Woodard, 2011).

In the digital realm, the opportunities for imaginary communities are magnified considerably, particularly given the depth of scholarship on the traditional media’s multi-faceted transition onto the World Wide Web (Chyi and Sylvie, 2010; Cornish, 2010; Paterson and Domingo, 2008; Singer et al., 2011; Yihui et al., 2011). Early studies identified the potential for community-building among online gamers (Turkle, 1995) and virtual communities (Rheingold, 1993). Those allegiances are, by the very nature of the World Wide Web, intangible and disassociated with any particular physical space. More recent analyses have identified that common coping themes and narratives cultivated a community of users on the diabetes support site ‘Tu Diabetes’ (Arduser, 2011), ideological communities formed on YouTube surrounding conflicting interpretations of the tragic Madeline McCann kidnapping case (Kennedy, 2010), and community ideals and common practices evolved among volunteer authors on the ‘Wikipedia community’(Pentzold, 2011). Other examples reflect similar findings (Brown, 2002; Feenberg and Bakardjieva, 2004).

Community journalism

The prevailing trend surrounding Anderson’s (2006) work has been toward a more imaginative conception of community and identity – and away from tangible associations with physical places. How might this scholarship consider traditional print capitalism, which remains fundamentally grounded in a physical place?

There is clear consensus that local newspapers retain a predominant focus on local news coverage. Journalism scholars have also consistently argued that local or so-called ‘community’ journalism retains a special connection with local readers and local audiences (Hume, 2005; Lauterer, 2006; Smethers et al., 2007), and that local newspapers offer more locally focused content (Funk, 2010) that is often crafted with local demographics in mind (Pollock, 2007). Most notably, Reader (2006) argued that ‘the process of ‘imagining the community is … somewhat easier and more prone to attachment in small, homogenous communities’ (Reader, 2006). But, beyond the news content itself, little research delves into connections between publication and place.

In 2000, a collection of citizen groups and community activists in Hawaii rallied around the sale and potential closure of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Auman (2007) found that the newspaper’s underdog reputation became a rallying cry among like-minded readers, forming a local community between audience and publication that ultimately preserved the newspaper (Auman, 2007). Obituaries are held in special reverence by readers of small newspapers, and reinforce local cultural values (Hume, 2005); local communities are also apt to mourn the loss of a local publication (Smethers et al., 2007). Involvement with message forums on online newspapers is also indicative of an understanding of local political and community issues, although such knowledge does not necessarily lead to political participation (Rosenberry, 2010). The print version of the Arizona Republic fosters a significant sense of community among readers, but the newspaper’s website, azcentral.com does not (Mersey, 2009).

Perhaps most pertinent to the current study, Lewis (2008) found patterns of ‘production bilingualism’, ‘content bilingualism’ and ‘tailored bilingualism’ among newspapers in semi-autonomous Spanish regions with local dialects. To different degrees, local newspapers would blend the national Spanish with local dialects; sometimes the two would be used interchangeably, while other publications reserved specific languages for particular subjects or sections of the publication. While the use of local dialects was rarely profitable, and ran the risk of political association with separatist or nationalist ideologies, a number of editors drew great inspiration from their local dialects and local communities. Lewis (2008: 420) continued:

They saw the newspaper as a natural vehicle through which to reach and unite that community, harmonizing a region of shared language, culture, and ethnic ancestry. For them, bilingual journalism was not a partisan plot or a marketing ploy to grab more readers, but rather a public service – a social cause worth championing in the spirit of activist journalism.

Lewis (2008) makes another astute point – that Anderson, like the bulk of traditional sociology, is concerned principally with readers of mass media, and not the producers. And because much journalism research is focused on news content, particularly community journalism, there remains ample opportunity to research the more tangible connections between a small newspaper and its home town.

Articulation theory

Understanding those potential connections, however, requires a comprehension of Stuart Hall’s (1980) articulation theory. The theory relies upon the study of connections, both physical and conceptual, between ideas expressed in the media to fully illustrate the meanings of the contrasted concepts. It argues that media do not explain ideas independently of one another; rather, meaning is crafted through a network of subtle and deliberate associations which reflect the meanings of the ideas in question and broader cultural biases, leanings and trends (Hall, 1980). Put another way, in the words of Harp and Struckman (2010: 6):

For Hall, the circuit of communication is complex and is constructed through practices of production, circulation, distribution and reproduction. Producers of media messages are able to create meanings by establishing connections between people, ideas, and events. The media, in an effort to ‘explain’ the world and ‘reality’, rely on these connections to make their messages easier to understand.

Analyses of such connections have indicated competing frameworks of African-American nationalism, African-American class mobility and anxiety as ‘material force[s]’ in advertisements for 1970s blaxploitation films (Kraszewski, 2002); themes of national security, counter-terrorism and technological progress arguably masquerading as justifications for broader American exceptionalism (Sikka, 2008); a ‘semiotic square’ of ‘techtopian’, ‘green Luddite’, ‘work machine’ and ‘techspressive’ ideologies concerning technology and consumer behavior (Kozinets, 2008); and the arbitrary, and highly contextual, divergent meanings of the word ‘victim’, particularly as it applies to women and victims of domestic violence (Reich, 2002). Analyses of articulation and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal have also been undertaken (Harp and Struckman, 2010; Tétreault, 2006); broader analyses are also common (DeLuca, 1999; Pillai, 1992; Pillai and Kline, 1998). Furthermore, negative associations between ideas can be articulated to establish otherness or foreignness of specific ideas, places or peoples; often that otherness is framed as an inversion of local, positive articulations, and thus rejected (Buruma and Margalit, 2004; Said, 1978).

How, then, do small American newspapers articulate their own sense of place? How do they articulate their own local identity, and how might that articulation fit into Anderson’s (2006) model of nationalism and print capitalism?

Research questions

Given that the bulk of scholarship concerning community journalism has highlighted its local editorial focus (Funk, 2010; Hansen and Hansen, 2011; Hume, 2005; Jackson, 1982; Lauterer, 2006; Reader, 2006; Roelfsema, 2009), and that Anderson’s (2006) ‘print capitalism’ demonstrated the constructive power of local print media, it seems logical to assume that community newspapers would articulate a sense of place more profoundly than larger print publications. Given that the web lends itself, to some degree, to imagined communities (Arduser, 2011; Brown, 2002; Kennedy, 2010; Rheingold, 1993; Turkle, 1995), it also seems logical that community newspapers would extend their focus on local identity into the digital realm. Arguably, too, the articulation of local identity would be more pronounced among community newspaper websites, and less pronounced on websites for larger newspapers.

The best barometer for such articulation lies in the banners, or headers, of such newspaper websites. It is here that the publication articulates its own identity through words, symbols and pictures; furthermore, newspaper banners are typically static, changing only rarely, and are entirely independent of the editorial and advertising content on the website. They are essentially an online version of traditional news banners crested atop broadsheet publications. There is simply no better place to study a newspaper’s articulation of place than its banner; furthermore, as those banners are qualitative expressions of a newspaper’s identity, and potentially its connection to its community, qualitative analysis is most appropriate.

As such, this study ventures two research questions, followed by qualitative textual analysis concerning articulation theory.

RQ1: Do the online banners of American newspaper websites articulate local identity, and local place, through a combination of text and pictures?

RQ2: Is local identity, and local place, articulated more clearly on the banners of community newspaper websites than on the online banners of larger newspapers?

Data and method

Data for this analysis is derived from the websites of 120 American newspapers. Publications were stratified by circulation size and regional geography, and were randomly selected within those groups. The United States was divided into eight discreet regions based upon common cultural, economic and political values, as well as geographic contiguity. This ensured a national dataset and more reliable findings; if regional or cultural differences influenced the articulation of local identity and place, then such discrepancies would not improperly limit the analysis (see Appendix 1). Fifteen newspapers were selected within each regional group. Five were considered community newspapers, or weekly publications with a regular circulation of fewer than 50,000. Five were considered small daily newspapers, or daily publications with a regular circulation of fewer than 50,000, while the remaining five were considered large daily publications with a regular circulation of greater than 50,000. Newspapers were located, and circulation was confirmed, primarily through the Ulrich Periodical Index (see Appendix 2).

Because the unit of analysis is a newspaper’s online banner, data collection consisted simply of generating a diverse dataset and bookmarking newspaper websites for future analysis; furthermore, because online banners change so rarely, one-time analysis was sufficient. Textual analysis took place on 11 and 12 November 2011.

Given the size of the dataset, categories were constructed to facilitate the analysis and findings. Of particular interest was how much local place and identity were articulated on newspaper website banners; design elements and techniques used to express this articulation were considered as well. Four criteria were designed to address the articulation of local place and identity. Absent identity was designed for banners with no articulation of local identity whatsoever. Banners with no textual or visual expression of the community fell into this category. Secondary identity addressed banners which articulated local place and identity to a degree secondary to the articulation of a newspaper’s professional identity; banners with the community name presented above or below the newspaper name, or in an otherwise subservient position, were placed in this category. Equal identity addressed banners with an equal articulation of professional identity, and local place and identity; if the two were evenly articulated in a banner, it was sorted into this category. Finally, Visual identity related to banners with a clear visual preference for local place and identity; any banner which strongly and clearly gave top priority to local place and identity was placed in this category.

Results

This study assesses the articulation of local identity, and local place, on the online banners of a diverse group of American newspaper websites. It seeks to establish how well articulated that identity and place are, through a potential combination of words, logos and pictures; furthermore, it seeks to determine if community newspaper websites articulate local identity and place more clearly than websites of larger newspapers.

Results for RQ1

Concerning RQ1, on articulation of local identity and place, it is helpful to divide results into four discreet groups: absent identity, secondary identity, equal identity and visual identity. RQ2, concerning differences between community newspaper websites and larger newspaper websites, can be assessed independently. However, one particular finding deserves paramount mention, before RQ1 subgroups are explicated.

On every newspaper banner, regardless of size or regional geography, the name of the community was never given greater emphasis than the name of the newspaper or website. In rare occasions, though, a pictorial representation of the community superseded the prominence of the publication name.

Not once, among 40 community newspapers and 80 daily newspapers, was the name of the community displayed more prominently, or given a larger font, than the name of the publication. In a sense, most of the 120 newspapers articulated their identity as newspapers first and as community institutions second. More detailed analysis concerning the four sub-categories for RQ1 was also fruitful.

Absent identity

In some cases, local identity was completely absent from the online banners of American newspaper websites. These publications simply omitted the name of the community entirely, and focused exclusively on the name of the newspaper; most such cases also omitted any kind of logo or picture associated with the banner, opting instead for more polished motifs which emphasized the professionalism of the publication rather than any connection to the community. This was true for roughly one out of every five newspaper websites.

The Quincy Patriot Ledger, in Quincy, Massachusetts, for example, makes no mention of Quincy or Massachusetts on its website banner. Instead, the words ‘PatriotLedger.com’ are emblazoned atop the website in a formal, old English-like font similar to the banner on the New York Times. Similarly, the Russellville Courier in Russellville, Arkansas, has a polished green ‘couriernews.com’ web banner, with a circle surrounding ‘com’, and the words ‘The Courier Online’ fit neatly between the dotted ‘i’ in ‘Courier’ and the circle around ‘com’; however, there is no mention of Russellville or Arkansas. At first glance, the website could be for any newspaper in America titled The Courier – and there are at least 195, according to Ulrich’s Periodical Index.

The Reno News & Review in Reno, Nevada, is another example of a newspaper without any articulation of local identity or place on its website banner, as are the Greenville Daily Advocate in Greenville, Ohio, and the Ellensburg Daily Record in Ellensburg, Washington.

Secondary identity

Many newspapers articulated local identity, and local place, to a secondary degree beneath the articulation of their own newspaper identity. This was done through the mention of the community name, the inclusion of a logo of some sort symbolizing the community, or in some cases both. The articulation of local identity and place was always secondary to the articulation of the newspaper’s identity; indeed, the community names and logos appeared more complementary to the banner than crucial to its construction.

One example is the Staten Island Advance in Staten Island, New York. The banner does not mention Staten Island, New York City or state, but it does include a circular image of the Brooklyn Bridge beside the text ‘silive.com’. The bridge is unmistakably a crucial characteristic of New York City life, particularly for suburban commuters crossing it every day. The same could be said for the Morgantown Dominion Post, in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its banner makes no textual reference to Morgantown or West Virginia, but does include a yellow image of West Virginia inside the ‘o’ in ‘Post’; given that Morgantown is the home of the University of West Virginia, the association between local and state is especially pertinent, albeit not textually explicit. The same could be said for the Ogden Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, which has images of mountains above its banner.

The same secondary importance can be assigned through the use of a community name. The Grants Pass Daily Courier, in Grants Pass, Oregon, has the words ‘Grants Pass Oregon’s’ in smaller typeface above a large, underlined ‘The Daily Courier’ on its banner. The Salisbury Post in Salisbury, North Carolina, clearly emphasizes the publication above local identity and place, with a large, blue ‘sp’ in a box above a much smaller ‘salisburypost.com’, but the word ‘Salisbury’ is mentioned within that secondary context. The St. Louis Post Dispatch in St. Louis, Missouri, has the words ‘the #1 St. Louis website’ beneath a red ‘stltoday.com’ banner; this emphasizes St. Louis in a secondary context (literally) beneath the role of the newspaper while concentrating the banner’s emphasis on the publication. Similarly, the banner of the Mountain View Voice in Mountain View, California, has a teal ‘Mountain View’ above a much larger black ‘Voice’ on its banner.

Some publications, like the Pierre Capital Journal in Pierre, South Dakota, even included both smaller text mentioning the community and a complementary image; in the case of the Capital Journal, subtext above the words ‘Capital Journal’ read ‘For 127 years, the voice of the capital city’, with a large image of the South Dakota Capitol building beside the text. But in each case, including the Capital Journal, the text and images of local identity and place were used to augment the presentation of the newspaper identity, and not the other way around.

Equal identity

Some newspapers articulated local identity and place on an equal footing with newspaper identity through both text and images. In these cases, the name of the community was granted equal representation to the name of the newspaper, sometimes with or without additional images.

The Las Cruces Bulletin in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for example, has the words ‘The Las Cruces’ in a secondary position above the word ‘Bulletin’, but also includes a pair of photographic slideshows of local images and events on either side of the text; local identity and place are certainly not emphasized more than newspaper identity, but the two are on a relatively equal footing.

More often, such equality was accomplished without the use of images, such as the West Hawaii Today’s blue banner with the words ‘West Hawaii Today’ in equal font size with equal placement, all beneath a subtext of ‘Your Island, Your Voice’, followed by the date and time. Similarly, the Cuero Record in Cuero, Texas, has the words ‘The Cuero Record’ in large, black font placed over a professional green image vaguely resembling a planet with a ring. The Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minnesota, has a simple banner with its full title in large, black font underlined twice; the Bangor Daily News in Bangor, Maine, has a similar use of large black words, all capitalized, spelling out ‘Bangor Daily News’. In fact, the most telling of all is the Lawton Constitution in Lawton, Oklahoma, which has the words ‘The Lawton Constitution’ in equal font set over a picture of a mountain – all on an image of a traditional newspaper, rolled up as if the web banner were a traditional doorstep.

In each case, local identity and place are articulated through the name of the community, or in some cases pictures of the same community; however, in each case, that local articulation is designed to augment or complement the newspaper identity.

Visual identity

In a handful of cases, the visual articulation of local identity and place was so pronounced it became the dominant expression of the banner. In these instances, the background of the banner was covered in an image – usually a landscape – that reflects either the local community or the local environment. That visual articulation is clear, and obviously reflects local identity and place to a considerable degree; in every case, the name of the publication was displayed over the image, thus connecting the local community to the newspaper’s self-identity.

The most stunning example is the Capital City Weekly in Juneau, Alaska, which has a large photo of an Alaskan fjord spanning the crest of the website. At one end of the banner is a large red ‘weekly’, with ‘Capital City’ in smaller text above it. The Brattleboro Reformer in Brattleboro, Vermont, has a similar landscape of the Green Mountains, while the Alamogordo Daily News in Alamogordo, New Mexico, has a large photo of rolling white sand dunes. Urban publications like the El Paso Times and the Baltimore Sun have similar banners, with the former showing the El Paso, Texas, skyline and the latter a city seal with an eagle resting above a shield. In some cases, like the Baltimore Sun, the name of the community is given equal representation to the name of the newspaper; in others, like the Alamogordo Daily News, the community name is given secondary placement to the newspaper name.

Such publications articulate local identity, and local place, to a prominent degree in their website banners, and certainly more so than other categories analyzed here. It is worth noting that, to a point, such articulation is vague – landscape photos serve to associate the publication with the surrounding countryside, which is not necessarily the same thing as local identity or local place. Readers, after all, live in the community, not the uninhabited surroundings; that being said, most of the landscape photos are quite captivating, and obviously reflect local place.

Among this handful of unique cases, the articulation is inverted: the visual expression of community is expressed first, and then linked to a clear expression of the newspaper’s identity.

Results for RQ2

The second research question analyzes the role a newspaper’s circulation size plays in the articulation of local identity and place on its website banner. Circulation size was divided into three categories: community newspapers, or small weekly newspapers with a regular circulation of fewer than 50,000; small daily newspapers with a regular circulation of fewer than 50,000; and large daily newspapers with a regular circulation of greater than 50,000.

Circulation size played little role in the construction of website banners. Community newspapers did not articulate a more clear sense of local identity or local place than larger newspapers.

Large daily newspapers were the most likely to ignore the name of a community entirely, including the Cedar Rapids Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah; community newspapers very rarely omitted the name of their community entirely. However, there was no clear difference concerning the other three categories of articulated identity. Community newspapers like the Wetzel Chronicle in Wetzel, West Virginia, and the Port Townsend Leader in Port Townsend, Washington, both assigned secondary importance to the name of their community by articulating it in smaller text beneath the newspaper name; other community newspapers, like the New Haven Leader in New Haven, Missouri, and the Tillamook Headlight-Herald in Tillamook, Oregon, have small images and pictures beside or inside their banners to reinforce local identity without displacing the emphasis on the newspaper identity.

Still other community newspapers, like the Cranbury Press in Cranbury, New Jersey, and the Brown County Democrat in Nashville, Indiana, articulate the name of the community in the same font and size as the name of the publication, thus granting equality; others, like the Mannford Eagle in Mannford, Oklahoma, and the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park in Oak Park, Illinois, grant equal articulation to the names of the community and newspaper but complement the banner with pictures to reinforce the newspaper’s connection to local identity and place. A handful also use large landscape photos to articulate local identity and local place, like the Missoula Independent in Missoula, Montana; however, even in those cases, the name of the newspaper is granted the greater emphasis.

There is no clear consistency among community newspapers nationwide as to what degree, or by which methods, local identity and place are articulated on a newspaper’s website banner. Furthermore, while community newspapers almost never omit the name of the community entirely, there are no other consistent differences between community newspapers and larger newspapers concerning the articulation of local identity and place.

Discussion

Anderson’s ‘imagined community’

This study analyzes the articulation of local identity, and local place, on the banners of American newspaper websites, with an eye toward both Benedict Anderson’s (2006) consideration of nationalism and ‘print capitalism’ and Stuart Hall’s (1980) theory of articulation. It found that modern American newspapers do articulate connections to local identity and local place; however, those articulations are almost always secondary to the articulation of the newspaper’s identity, and they are often weak or subtle associations. In many cases, local identity and place are omitted entirely. Instead, articulations of professionalism and the newspaper’s own identity are regularly paramount.

This complicates Anderson’s ‘essential connection’ between the publication, the location and the passage of time. If the association between publication and place is not made in an online banner, then is the banner truly building an imagined community? Or is it simply developing an imagined commodity?

In the online era, it seems newspapers are principally concerned with the business of being a newspaper – not of being a community entity or a local organization. There is a key distinction between the two. If a newspaper articulates itself simply as a newspaper, without many elements of local identity or place, then what does that decision reveal about its identity as a newspaper? If professionalism is the primary focus, then how local can a newspaper truly be? To Anderson, the connection between a newspaper and its ‘imagined’ community was tangible; today, this may no longer be the case.

A few newspapers did invert that relationship, and have a more clear articulation of local place than of the newspaper’s identity. Such an articulation is highly tangible for readers, and potentially very effective at reflecting, constructing or reinforcing community identity and place. The most vivid examples currently reside in rural areas, including Juneau, Alaska, and Brattleboro, Vermont, but urban publications could potentially adopt the practice. However, these cases were rare. At most the majority articulated local identity and place equal to the articulation of the newspaper identity; in some cases, that local identity is omitted outright.

Furthermore, it is telling that community newspapers were generally no more or less likely to articulate local identity or local place than larger newspapers; this is surprising, given the litany of literature devoted to the ‘relentlessly local’ (Lauterer, 2006) focus of community newspapers (Funk, 2010; Hume, 2005; Mersey, 2009; Reader, 2006; Roelfsema, 2009; Smethers et al., 2007; Strout, 2009). Would not a community newspaper have extra incentive to articulate local identity and place, given its proximity and prominence in the local community?

It is important to note that there is nothing wrong with a newspaper pursuing profit, and imagining a commodity is arguably a key element in selling that commodity. However, as local institutions purporting local coverage, there seems obvious room for experimentation with the banners of community newspaper websites. Why not emphasize the local community more? Why not show pictures or photographs of local landmarks, or articulate affiliations with local high schools or historical figures? Such innovations may even prove more profitable than the current professional model of website banner. Community newspapers are selling a local product with local news; could a website banner which clearly articulated local place and identity encourage that local focus, and drive up local profits? It seems logical that customers purchasing a local product would prefer a locally oriented product label, particularly online.

For example, the Cuero Record in Cuero, Texas, has a very polished, professional banner on its website, but the emphasis is clearly on presenting a professional website and newspaper rather than on articulating local identity. Cuero has a highly successful high school football team, the Gobblers, and is also famous for a number of ‘Chupacabra’ sightings in 2008. Why not articulate either of those identities on the web banner? Similarly, the print version of the Buffalo Center Tribune in Buffalo Center, Iowa, has a large cartoon image of a stampeding buffalo; because the PDF of the print version is available on the website, the buffalo is in plain view of the online reader. Yet the banner on the newspaper’s website is dull, and mentions the local community only as part of the newspaper name. Why, if the image of the buffalo is already designed, does it not also appear on the website?

Leaving those concepts unarticulated on websites is to avoid considerable untapped potential, both for the newspaper and the community.

Hall’s articulation theory

It is worth noting that although Stuart Hall’s (1980) theory of articulation fits this research quite well, it is admittedly a simple application of his theory. It seems intuitively obvious that photographs of local landscapes, images of local landmarks and the name of a community are mediated references to the community itself. Little can be done to deepen the shallow empirical examination in this study; online newspaper banners are relatively simple texts, and even a thorough analysis is limited by that simplicity. However, two points are worth noting.

First, this study suggests that media articulation can be a relatively simple process. While past studies have dug deep into texts for complex meanings and articulations (Harp and Struckman, 2010; Kraszewski, 2002; Reich, 2002; Sikka, 2008), the presence of articulation effects among simple, shallow content speaks to the resilience of the theory. Indeed, a casual media audience would be more likely to identify simple articulations than complex connections, and identifying simple articulations broadens the theory’s foundation.

Second, it is worth nothing that the degree of articulation, and potentially the lack of it, can speak volumes. Here, it does so. It is not a theoretical leap to associate pictures of a place with the articulation of local identity. However, if and when those pictures are not present, articulation is not also absent. Every association is articulated, just as every community is imagined; what identity is articulated, and how, is relevant even when the symbols being articulated are relatively simple.

Opportunities for future research

As mentioned previously, the critical weakness of this analysis is the relative simplicity of the text itself. Website banners are not complex, and only reflect a small proportion of a newspaper’s overall articulation of local identity. It is a meaningful proportion despite that simplicity, but it is only a piece of the overall articulation. A threefold question, therefore, emerges.

First, the analysis of local newspapers, articulation theory (Hall, 1980) and Benedict Anderson’s ‘imagined communities’ (2006) can be expanded to consider the entire newspaper, not simply a newspaper’s online banner. As Bill Reader (2006) points out, local community is easier to imagine on a small scale, like a small town, than a larger regional or national identity; as such, a comprehensive textual analysis of the articulation of local place and identity in small weekly, small daily and large daily newspapers is appropriate. How do such publications articulate local place and identity in political news, or sports coverage, or op-ed columns? What associations are made, among what content in which newspapers, that articulate and imagine local identity and place? Broadly speaking, from the front page to the back, are American newspapers imagining newspaper commodity or local community?

This analysis cannot address these questions. It focuses on online website banners because this content is exclusively determined by editors and publishers, and not based upon the day’s events or the news itself. It offers a unique insight into a newspaper’s top priorities, therefore, but it cannot speak to newspaper content writ large. A study which addresses newspaper content more comprehensively could expand well beyond the current study, and potentially confirm or disconfirm the findings presented here. Furthermore, such an analysis could build upon research into the imagination of local community among local media, providing evidence that local identity is – or is not – more ‘prone to attachment’ in small communities (Reader, 2006).

Second, it would be equally worthwhile to interview or survey editors directly concerning their articulation of local place and identity. This textual analysis, as well as the proposed expansion, would be limited to discussion and consideration of newspaper content itself. It has not, nor would it have, any insight into the media construction process; such interviews or surveys could illuminate editorial decisions behind the articulation of local place and identity, and the logic behind imagining commodity or community. Like any other media content, the construction of website banners and local news reflects media sociology (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996) and gatekeeping dimensions (Shoemaker and Vos, 2009; White, 1950); past studies have argued that editorial decision-making is based upon a number of objective and subjective institutional factors (Bleske, 1991; Bui, 2010; Burgoon et al., 1982; Lewin, 1947; Tuchman, 1973). Analyses of decisions concerning website banners, as well as broader articulations of local place and identity, could potentially identify objective and subjective forces, as well as institutional factors or behaviors which could vary between newspapers according to the size of their circulation.

Third, it is worth noting that the World Wide Web is only part of the evolving new media landscape. Increasingly, according to the 2012 State of the News Media report, media consumers are relying upon mobile devices and social media networks for their news (Mitchell et al., 2012); a range of research has also indicated the potential mobile platforms offer to media consumers and producers alike (Campbell and Kwak, 2011, 2012; Dimmick et al., 2011; Wasserman, 2011; Westlund, 2008). As such, inquiry into the articulation of local place and identity on mobile platforms is also relevant. This study examined such articulation on community newspaper websites; how might that compare with logos or banners on a newspaper’s smart phone application or social media presence?

What this study has done is illustrate the dominance of newspaper articulation above the articulation of local place and identity in online website banners. How newspapers articulate local place and identity writ large, and what forces influence those decisions, remains to be seen.

Footnotes

Appendix 1

Appendix 2 Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author biography

Marcus Funk is a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism. His research focuses on community journalism, sports news and agenda setting, and he has covered local politics and the ‘Texas Lege’ for a number of daily, weekly and monthly newspapers.

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