Study Finds Local Blogs Beating Legacy Media on Substantive Policy Discussions
A Nieman Labs blogpost by Michael Andersen presents interesting data from a study on where discussions about Portland, Oregon’s city government are happening online.
Sure, the digital age might be killing professional muckraking in local markets, and most of the spadework that becomes local news stories might still come from newspapers. But a new empirical study suggests that all the new online din isn’t crowding out serious policy debate.
Just the opposite: Startup news sites are drawing far more attention to actual local policy than newspapers, TV, or radio.
Read more about the Portland study and its findings here and here.
Hey, thanks for the nod, Amy. One issue: my name's spelled with an "en." The doctor actually got it wrong on the first draft of my birth certificate; joke is my parents shouldn't have corrected him.
-Mike
Sorry about that, Mike. Correction's made. Thanks for bringing this study to our attention. It seems to illustrate what several of our commissioner's have observed — that now is a time of considerable opportunity for new forms of local journalism.