Sarah Hartley has taken her own breakdown of local authority coverage in her local newspaper a step further by starting an investigation with collaborative website Help Me Investigate.com.
Using the site, Hartley wants to find out:
“How much local authority coverage is carried out by your local newspaper? Has it declined? Is it on the increase? Do readers prefer celebrity news? Does it matter? Who cares?”
People can sign up to the investigation at this link and submit information about newspaper coverage for different regions.
The idea is to survey newspapers in all regions of the UK to provide a more robust picture of what local newspapers cover – in particular in light of debates surrounding competition from local authorities’ own ‘newspapers’ and public service reporting.
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