Abstract

Studies of hyperlocal journalism and news have not adequately taken into account audience members’ everyday experiences of their own hyperlocal communities and the ways in which audiences’ everyday information environments are integrated with their social and affective community environments. In this focus group study (six groups, 5–7 participants/group, total N = 38) of neighbourhoods in Rivertown, Sweden (a mid-sized Swedish municipality) we combine Henri Lefebvre’s theory of rhythmanalysis and his idea of “the media day” with Ray Oldenburg’s concept of third places to analyse the spatiotemporal aspects of hyperlocal information environments. The focus group participants created individual “media day” timelines and then discussed them, and their neighbourhoods, in the groups. Our findings are in line with other recent studies on digital and local news and information consumption, but also highlight how the media context has changed since Lefebvre’s and Oldenburg’s studies. In particular, we found that their juxtapositions of “authentic” interpersonal communication and “inauthentic” mediated communication still have some relevance in the contemporary media landscapes (particularly as related to the existence of neighbourhood third places) and that some hyperlocal digital information sources (Facebook groups) appear to contribute to dressage in Lefebvre’s sense.

摘要

对超本地化新闻和新闻的研究没有充分考虑到受众成员对他们自己的超本地化社区的日常体验，以及受众日常信息环境与他们的社会和情感社区环境相结合的方式。在这个焦点小组研究中（六组，每组 5-7 名参与者，总共N = 38) 在瑞典 Rivertown（瑞典中型城市）的社区中，我们将 Henri Lefebvre 的节奏分析理论和他的“媒体日”理念与 Ray Oldenburg 的第三场所概念相结合，分析超本地化信息环境的时空方面。焦点小组参与者创建了单独的“媒体日”时间表，然后在小组中讨论它们以及他们的社区。我们的研究结果与最近关于数字和本地新闻和信息消费的其他研究一致，但也强调了自列斐伏尔和奥尔登堡的研究以来媒体环境发生了怎样的变化。特别是，