Local News Research Project

About us

The Local News Research Project combines content analysis and digital mapping to explore issues related to local news. The project’s news poverty research examines local coverage in Canadian communities at a time when print and broadcast outlets are scaling back, consolidating or closing, and many online news sites are struggling to stay afloat. Project initiatives include The Local News Map, a study of how local media covered the 2015 federal election, and research on local news reporting on disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Other research has examined the role of ethnic media in shaping newcomers’ sense of place and portrayals of diversity in ethnic newspapers published in the Greater Toronto Area. For more information, contact us.

Markers on a map of Canada and U.S. with box on Manitouwadge Echo newspaper ceased publishing in March 2016.

About us

The Local News Map is a crowd-sourced resource that tracks what is happening to local newspapers, broadcast outlets and online/digital news sources in places across Canada. It displays changes to service at local news outlets, including information on the launch/closing of local news organizations along with service increases/reductions going back to 2008. The map is a collaborative project undertaken by Professor April Lindgren, lead investigator for the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism, and Associate Professor Jon Corbett, who leads the University of British Columbia’s SpICE Lab (Spatial Information for Community Mapping). A summary of the latest map data is available here.

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The COVID-19 Media Impact Map for Canada tracks the impact of COVID-19 on the media industry dating back to March 11, 2020, when the WHO declared a global pandemic. Map markers indicate the type of news organization affected (daily newspapers, community newspapers, magazines, television and radio broadcasters, and online news sites). The colour of these markers shows the type of impact on media outlets. Where there is more than one impact, markers display the colour representing the media impact according to this order: closed/temporarily closed, cancelled some/all print editions, cut back news broadcasts/shows, reduced coverage (other), layoffs/job losses, and pay cuts/reduced hours. A summary of the latest map data is available here.

Local News Data Hub

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The Local News Data Hub is committed to i) shoring up local journalism by supplying newsrooms with data-driven stories ii) training student data journalists and iii) providing support for/collaborating with journalists and news outlets on data-based projects. After identifying a dataset relevant to multiple communities, the Data Hub team does the necessary reporting to produce a story template that is then populated with data for individual cities and towns. These local stories are available to all local media via the LNDH website. Many are also shared with the Canadian Press wire service for distribution to CP clients across the country. Read more HERE.