Asta Cepaite Nilsson
Lärare
Participatory action research in hyperlocal media studies: reflection on methodology
Författare
Summary, in Swedish
The use of participatory action research in media studies is under development and has the last years become notable as a new way of exploring changes that has taken place on the media market the last decades. Media corporations in Sweden continue shutting down local editorial offices and centralize local news reporting to the head editorials. An absence of local reporting in several rural areas is obvious; some communities at the countryside lack local news coverage and become media deserts. As a counter-reaction, hyperlocal media ventures have been established in communities, a trend that continues both in Sweden and other European countries.
Transformation of the local media landscape as well as local journalism requires development of research methodology that focus on hyperlocal media entrepreneurs’ participation and dialogue with community members and researchers. Participatory action research is usually used as a tool to engage people in complex settings involving multiple stakeholders. This methodology is expected to provide researchers and facilitators with a new approach to organizational and community engagement (c f Chevalier, J. M. & Buckles, D. J., 2013).
Several researchers witness contributions of PAR in social science research and new media research in particular (Hearn & Foth, 2005), emphasizing “opportunities for practitioners and participants to construct knowledge and integrate theory and practice in ways that are unique and practical to a particular group (McIntyre, 2014: 66). Hyperlocal news ventures characterizes by high diversity in organisational forms, business intentions, and act in different societal conditions. Hyperlocal journalism is a young field of practice that is changeable due to economical, political and cultural factors in different countries and in specific local communities – this raises constantly new questions and multiple research approaches can be suitable to use. Participatory action research can be regarded as democratic approach that considers the participants and researchers as equally valuable; theoretical findings are combined with solutions to the problems experienced by participants (Hearn & Foth, 2005).
This paper aims to discuss and reflect implementation of participatory action research in a study of hyperlocal media ventures. The main objective of this study is to evaluate methodological possibilities and challenges using participatory action research in cases of hyperlocal news production, using three hyperlocal media ventures as examples.
Participatory action research is designed for building capacity of media entrepreneurs to test, reflect and consequently alter practices as part of their on-going hyperlocal news site development. Action research may use any methodology, but usually applies qualitative methods. In this study, focus groups have been used to stimulate and evaluate development of hyperlocal news sites. Focus groups consisted of target audiences of each hyperlocal venture. Three selected hyperlocal news ventures have been studied during one year. Research has been aimed to generate ideas for news sites’ content and design development, targeting new groups of potential readers and identifying problems for the news sites’ viability and sustainability.
Transformation of the local media landscape as well as local journalism requires development of research methodology that focus on hyperlocal media entrepreneurs’ participation and dialogue with community members and researchers. Participatory action research is usually used as a tool to engage people in complex settings involving multiple stakeholders. This methodology is expected to provide researchers and facilitators with a new approach to organizational and community engagement (c f Chevalier, J. M. & Buckles, D. J., 2013).
Several researchers witness contributions of PAR in social science research and new media research in particular (Hearn & Foth, 2005), emphasizing “opportunities for practitioners and participants to construct knowledge and integrate theory and practice in ways that are unique and practical to a particular group (McIntyre, 2014: 66). Hyperlocal news ventures characterizes by high diversity in organisational forms, business intentions, and act in different societal conditions. Hyperlocal journalism is a young field of practice that is changeable due to economical, political and cultural factors in different countries and in specific local communities – this raises constantly new questions and multiple research approaches can be suitable to use. Participatory action research can be regarded as democratic approach that considers the participants and researchers as equally valuable; theoretical findings are combined with solutions to the problems experienced by participants (Hearn & Foth, 2005).
This paper aims to discuss and reflect implementation of participatory action research in a study of hyperlocal media ventures. The main objective of this study is to evaluate methodological possibilities and challenges using participatory action research in cases of hyperlocal news production, using three hyperlocal media ventures as examples.
Participatory action research is designed for building capacity of media entrepreneurs to test, reflect and consequently alter practices as part of their on-going hyperlocal news site development. Action research may use any methodology, but usually applies qualitative methods. In this study, focus groups have been used to stimulate and evaluate development of hyperlocal news sites. Focus groups consisted of target audiences of each hyperlocal venture. Three selected hyperlocal news ventures have been studied during one year. Research has been aimed to generate ideas for news sites’ content and design development, targeting new groups of potential readers and identifying problems for the news sites’ viability and sustainability.
Avdelning/ar
- Institutionen för strategisk kommunikation
Publiceringsår
2019-08-21
Språk
Engelska
Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag: abstract
Ämne
- Media Studies
Conference name
NordMedia
Conference date
2019-08-21 - 2019-08-23
Conference place
Malmö, Sweden
Status
Published