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Across the country, academics, journalists and researchers are mapping their state\u2019s news and information ecosystems.<\/p>\n
Their methodologies differ, but such initiatives seek to make sense of the splintered reality of where people are getting their local news and information. Often, it\u2019s not just from a legacy news organization such as a community newspaper, TV station or a notch on the radio dial.<\/p>\n
Local news mapping in communities\u00a0goes back more than a decade<\/a>. But ever since researchers at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University created a first-of-its-kind\u00a0interactive news map of New Jersey<\/a>\u00a0in 2020, similar projects have exploded.<\/p>\n As an instructor at Colorado College where I manage the\u00a0Journalism Institute<\/a>, I\u2019m borderline obsessed with the ways in which people get their local news and information. For a class called The Future and Sustainability of Local News, students and I have interviewed and surveyed Colorado residents about that. We\u00a0created an interactive map that shows<\/a>\u00a0where Coloradans are learning about what\u2019s going on in their communities in all 64 counties in the state.<\/p>\n We first published the\u00a0Colorado news mapping project<\/a>\u00a0in 2022 in partnership with the University of Denver and others. It includes a growing list of 600-plus news and information sources. The map, which we update regularly, includes everything from podcasts and Facebook groups, TikTok and Instagram accounts, to Substack newsletters and more.<\/p>\n In one of our state\u2019s least populous counties, San Juan, one student learned about \u201can individual community member going door-to-door to tell people about certain events or occurrences.\u201d Yes, that modern-day town crier appears on our map.<\/p>\n A glance at the graphic shows which counties have plentiful sources of news and information and which ones don\u2019t. It also includes census data about population and demographics.<\/p>\n A screenshot of the map of Colorado\u2019s news and information sources. To interact with the map, visit: Colorado News Mapping Project<\/p><\/div>\n Colorado is one of several states with such projects.<\/p>\n Last year, universities charted the local news ecologies of\u00a0Nebraska<\/a>,\u00a0Maryland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Minnesota<\/a>. Around the same time, projects began for New Mexico, Montana, Wisconsin and Wyoming. They followed maps in\u00a0Oregon<\/a>\u00a0and elsewhere.<\/p>\n Washington State University is\u00a0creating a map<\/a>\u00a0with funding from a legislative effort to support local news. It might even inform how lawmakers there create public policy.<\/p>\n Researchers have also sought to assess the local news environments in specific regions, such as\u00a0New England<\/a>,\u00a0southern New Mexico<\/a>, California\u2019s\u00a0Inland Empire<\/a>, and the cities of\u00a0Philadelphia<\/a>,\u00a0Baltimore<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Detroit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those of us doing this labor-intensive research are benefiting from organizations helping to make it easier.<\/p>\n Last year, the company Impact Architects published a\u00a0news and information ecosystem playbook<\/a>\u00a0and accompanying\u00a0workbook<\/a>\u00a0that helps researchers compare a community\u2019s news and information ecosystem with others. Resources include how to set baselines and collect data.<\/p>\n These mapping and assessment initiatives come as local newspapers increasingly\u00a0shrink or disappear<\/a>\u00a0from communities. Papers have\u00a0vanished at a clip of roughly two<\/a>\u00a0per week, according to a study from Northwestern University\u2019s State of Local News Project. Coupled with broader cuts in funding and staff, the development has led to what researchers call \u201cghost papers\u201d and \u201cnews deserts<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2023 landscape study of Georgia troublingly found that\u00a017 of its counties do not have<\/a>\u00a0a single source of professional local news whatsoever.<\/p>\n To make sense of Colorado\u2019s landscape, we used a loose methodology.<\/p>\n We chose not to be judge and jury on the legitimacy of a source. We added something to our map if residents told us they relied on it or if it had an otherwise demonstrable impact in the community. By doing so, we sought to reflect the reality of where people look for news and information in a county and what is available.<\/p>\n On our map, we noted whether a source was a member of a professional journalism organization and what kind of ownership structure it has. We included a brief description about each source for context.<\/p>\n University of Denver researchers\u00a0Kareem Raouf El Damanhoury<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0David Coppini<\/a>\u00a0initially synthesized two public databases to get a baseline of outlets in each Colorado county. They also analyzed news coverage in each county on a single weekday in 2021 and gauged the number of original and local stories produced.<\/p>\n Colorado College students then interviewed people in the counties to identify more sources. We sent surveys to local news organizations to publish in their communities as well.<\/p>\n Calvin University\u00a0journalism professor Jesse Holcomb<\/a>\u00a0has worked on and researched news mapping projects. He found a \u201cmain tension\u201d is scale versus precision.<\/p>\n Scale, he said, allows researchers to make broad, generalizable assertions about the state of a landscape. But it can come at the cost of granular detail from \u201claborious, bespoke groundwork\u201d at the community level.<\/p>\n \u201cBy contrast, research that prioritizes precision and accuracy is often limited to case studies, and thus it\u2019s harder to make generalizable insights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Those scaling up a news map might look for efficiencies in decision-making, such as identifying a news outlet by brick-and-mortar location instead of coverage area.<\/p>\n \u201cThe former is easy to measure but limited in what it actually tells you,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cThe latter is difficult to measure but yields more reward in terms of insight.\u201d<\/p>\n Often housed in higher-ed journalism departments, this new breed of local news and information mapmakers are equipped with rapidly developing\u00a0tech tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n They are conducting the state-level news ecology research at a time when national and local philanthropic organizations raise and spend money to help revitalize the nation\u2019s local news scenes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important for funders in our network to understand not only which geographical communities various newsrooms are reaching, but also the specific audiences that they are designed to serve \u2013 and how,\u201d said Melissa Milios Davis, network manager for\u00a0Press Forward<\/a>, a nationwide philanthropic initiative. \u201cSeeing all of this useful information in one place \u2013 even with layers of data on socioeconomic and civic engagement data \u2013 helps target philanthropic dollars in the communities and contexts that need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n As these disparate state-based maps increasingly take shape,\u00a0Sarah Stonbely<\/a>\u00a0from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism is building a national\u00a0local news registry<\/a>. It\u2019s focused on all civic information providers. Think community centers, chambers of commerce, local governments and even small businesses.<\/p>\n Other initiatives, such as the\u00a0Civic Information Index<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Roadmap for Local News<\/a>, have advocated for similar approaches.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as the local news landscape has evolved, so has local news mapping,\u201d Stonbely said. \u201cIt has become clear that journalists are no longer the gatekeepers; there are now so many ways that people get news, especially in local journalism deserts. Our efforts to provide actionable data about local news landscapes have had to evolve accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n As researchers map their own communities, they have support from those who have tread similar ground.<\/p>\n A group of academics at multiple universities have formed the\u00a0Local News Impact Consortium<\/a>, which collaborates with researchers and practitioners to help develop standards and protocols. Its goal is to \u201cexpand the rigorous study\u201d of local information ecosystems across the country.<\/p>\n Later this year, the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference is slated to include a panel dedicated to the topic: Mapping local news ecosystems and filling the gaps.<\/p>\n I plan to represent Colorado\u2019s project on the panel. Who knows how different it might look by then.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/OiutletsMap.jpg\")
Local news mapping projects take off<\/strong><\/h4>\n
A framework for mapping local news<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Colorado\u2019s methodology<\/strong><\/h4>\n
An evolution in news mapping<\/strong><\/h4>\n
A local news map near you<\/strong><\/h4>\n