Hyperlocal - a shift from centralised control of the media

THE PHONE HACKING SCANDAL has exposed the risks involved in having one major conglomerate dominating a significant part of the media industry. The centralised control of the media by rich and powerful tycoons may have directly led to the unsavoury phone hacking practices becoming an acceptable means of gathering news in a competitive industry.

Whilst people have been quite rightly outraged by the invasions of privacy engendered by phone hacking, the whole debacle has highlighted a general - and growing - public cynicism with traditional media. One of the major drivers for this questioning of the current status quo is the availability of free and easily shareable quality news on the internet.

The internet has allowed people to do their own research and quiz what official media is saying. For a growing number of people the net has become their official media. This move towards the net has hit the big media corporations and their profits hard - and as they themselves have moved towards the internet, they have found that space already occupied by a host of bloggers, citizen journalists and hyperlocal activists.

In an article on its LGiU Blog, the Local Government Information Unit has commented on the fact that new technology is making the news a social and local medium. It points out that "hyperlocal websites, now numbering in their thousands, are increasingly becoming the places where people turn to find out, publish and share news about what’s happening in their community."

Whilst no one is writing off the media giants, the LGiU article does suggest that the "emergence of local news nonetheless represents a shift in the centre of gravity away from centralised control and towards a diversity and granularity that the big media companies inevitably struggle to provide."

HU12 is proud to be one of the thousands of unique hyperlocal websites that are acting as a counter-balance to the centrally driven and profit-hungry news organisations. Our focus is to bring news and issues - of a national, regional and local importance - to the attention of local community and business activists. We hope to get better at doing that - and will strive to add some real democratic value to the society and communities that we love and live in.