Asta Cepaite Nilsson

Hyperlocal news appears often in discussion about the future of the news media and potential alternative models. There is a strong need to analyse development of hyper-local news initiatives to better understand the needs of this sector, possibilities and challenges of collaboration between the community and media initiatives. It is important to study the phenomena in various cultural and social contexts for better understanding of the conditions, barriers and development opportunities of hyperlocal journalism. This study has the emerging sector of hyperlocal journalism in Sweden as a starting point.
The object of this paper is to discuss different interpretation and definitions of the phenomena of hyper local journalism in purpose to adopt a working model; to apply these definitions as a working model on a Swedish case of local media entrepreneurs – the recent started local entrepreneur radio station in south-north of Sweden, the village Kramfors.
Different definitions of hyperlocal and what are the distinguishing features of this kind of local journalism are discussed. The elements that together represent hyperlocal journalism are described and a model for understanding hyper-local journalism is proposed.