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Community Journalism as a Synonym for Small Town Newspapers

Decent Essays

Literature Review:
The notion of community journalism is hardly a new one. However, during the past decade, the concept gained much fascination and interest among industry analysts.
The literature available on the topic points out that the reason behind this strong comeback of community journalism lies in the fact that most regions where the boom is taking place are undergoing a transitional phase that paved the way for this shift. The literature, however, refers to two trends in this matter: the first is the effect of economic transition on the reemergence of community journalism in countries such as the US and the UK, the second is the effect of political transition on the emergence of community journalism in countries such as South Africa. In other words, while the former example shows a rebirth of an old notion as a result of economic decline, the latter shows an adoption of the concept in the hope of facilitating political transition.
Concerning the effect of economic transition, one theory is that the diminishing influence of larger newspapers (in the US and the UK) and the decline in number of their circulation allowed localized news outlets to flourish and become more prominent (Conhaim, 2006).
During these times of financial troubles, local publications had the power to remain profitable by focusing on small target audiences, and offer unique, concentrated, localized content as their niche product. So in addition to succeeding in gaining financial prosperity,

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