Bounding and bonding community: Ethnic diversity and the ethic of inclusion in hyperlocal news

Abstract

Amid the changing communication environment, there has been a growing interest from practitioners, policy makers, and scholars in harnessing the potential of hyperlocal news to strengthen communities and revitalize the condition for civic action. Hyperlocal news is often taken to signify a form of information provision by and for the community, leaving the boundaries, meaning, and assumed normative value of community unquestioned and uncontended. This article highlights the blind spots in the current research in hyperlocal news and argues that increasing ethnic diversity in local communities requires confronting the challenge of communication in and across difference. Citing empirical evidence from a small multiethnic city, this article argues that the concept of community is ultimately unproductive for positively thematizing the role of hyperlocal news in the context of ethnic diversity, and recasting hyperlocal news as a public discursive realm with differently situated publics points to new normative values and directions for research.