This paper deals with the local journalistic use of Instagram. In times of declining print circulation and advertising revenues, local journalism is in deep crisis across countries. Yet, local journalism plays a relevant role in the fight against fake news and white-collar crime and has a relevant function in Western democracies that needs to be preserved.
A major problem local news has to deal with is the fact that it no longer reaches young people. On the one hand, people under 29 hardly use local journalistic offers and on the other hand, they hardly read print products. For years, local newspapers have relied on the distribution of news content on Facebook. However, young people are less and less active on Facebook. The platform of the younger generation is currently Instagram. Social media, which is geared towards visual and audiovisual content, can offer local news an opportunity to distribute editorially produced content to a younger target group. This white paper outlines why the existence and future of local media outlets are relevant, why Instagram could play a relevant role in this and how Instagram
has been used in local journalism so far. Furthermore, arguments for and against an intensive focus of local journalism on Instagram are presented, and possible future scenarios are
1. Introduction
2.The issues at stake
2.1 Local journalism in crisis
2.1.1 The relevance of local news
2.2 Local journalism in the times of digitalization and social media
2.2.1 Social Media: When the consumer becomes an interactive user
2.2.2 Local journalism on Facebook: The key “driver of traffic
2.2.3 How local news struggle to attract young people digitally
2.3 Instagram: The social media network of the young generation
2.3.1 The most important effects of Instagram use on local journalism
2.3.1.1 Change in communication
2.3.1.2 Content alignment
2.3.1.3 Lack of personal resources .
2.3.1.4 The aim of Instagram use
3 Existing positions
3.1 High workload - few staff
3.2 Lack of monetisation options
3.3 Dependence on algorithms
3.4 Reaching a young target group
3.5 How young people benefit from Local Instagram Lournalism
4 Local Journalism on Intagram: Deal with the trend
4.1 Adaptation to the target group is necessary
4.2 Transmediality is the key word
4.2.1 Transmediality and Crossmediality in local journalistic practice
4.3 How local newspapers can use different Instagram tools
4.3.1 News Summaries through Instagram Stories
4.3.2 Videos using Instagram's "Instagram Video
4.3.3 The simple picture post
4.3.4 Infographics
4.3.5 Live broadcast via Instagram Live
5. Conclusion: Instagram - A welcome opportunity for local media?
6. References
Summary
This paper deals with the local journalistic use of Instagram. In times of declining print circulation and advertising revenues, local journalism is in deep crisis across countries. Yet local journalism plays a relevant role in the fight against fake news and white-collar crime, and has a relevant function in Western democracies that needs to be preserved.
A major problem local news has to deal with is the fact that it no longer reaches young people. On the one hand, people under 29 hardly use local journalistic offers and on the other hand they hardly read print products.
For years, local newspapers have relied on the distribution of news content on Facebook. However, young people are less and less active on Facebook. The platform of the younger generation is currently Instagram. Social media, which is geared towards visual and audiovisual content, can offer local news an opportunity to distribute editorially produced content to a younger target group. This white paper outlines why the existence and future of local media outlets is relevant, why Instagram could play a relevant role in this and how Instagram has been used in local journalism so far.
Furthermore, arguments for and against an intensive focus of local journalism on Instagram are presented, possible future scenarios are discussed and finally the potential of Instagram for local journalism is debated.
1. Introduction
Local journalism plays a vitalising role in democratic societies (cf. Jenkins & Nielsen, 2018, p.7). Whether regional print newspapers, TV channels or radio stations: They provide citizens with relevant information at the regional level and enable them to form informed opinions about incidents and developments in the region and to actively participate (cf. Harte et al. 2017; Nygren et al.2017, in: Jenkins & Nielsen, 2018, p. 7).
But local journalism is facing an uncertain future (cf. Nielsen, 2015, p. 2). At a time when journalism is undergoing structural change because of the rise of digital media, local journalism is also changing (cf. ibid.). Thus, the changes in the journalistic sphere of Western democracies show certain commonalities. While print media are increasingly losing relevance and are in decline, digital media offer new possibilities for accessing media content (cf. ibid.) Local journalism suffers particularly from the rise of digital media. In the past, advertising was the most important source of income for many local newspapers. Due to the fact that they usually acted as the main news source in a geographically limited area, local newspapers were usually thriving businesses. However, the status has changed a lot with the digital transformation (cf. Jenkins & Nielsen, 2018, p.7). This is because advertisers are now finding opportunities to advertise through digital means (cf. ibid.). Furthermore, circulation figures are falling drastically - this reduces financial resources, which can lead to staff shortages or even closures in many places (cf. ibid.).
Furthermore, there are two other problems that local media must deal with. In addition to declining print circulation figures and advertising revenues, local media find it difficult on the one hand to profit financially from digital content and on the other hand to convince young people of their own - often digital - offerings (cf. Jenkins & Nielsen, 2018, p.8).
2. The issues at stake
In the following, the reason for the relevance of Instagram use is explained in more detail and the use of Instagram in local newsrooms to date is examined.
2.1 Local journalism in crisis
The days when we could consider the existence of local journalism, as well as its practicality and commercial sustainability, as understandable are over. (cf. Nielsen, 2015, p. 3). As a rule, for most publishing houses, for example, overall revenues are collapsing, readers are falling away and demand for advertising space is declining (cf. ibid., p.3). The massive crisis in local journalism has been particularly evident in the United States in recent years.
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Figure 1: News Deserts
Source: Hendrickson
“Town by town, local journalism is dying in plain sight”, headlined CNBC (2019) on 10 March 2019 following the discontinuation of the Daily Guide, a local newspaper in Pulsaski County, Missouri. This makes Waynesville one of 1400 cities and towns in the US to have lost a newspaper in the previous 15 years, according to an AP analysis.
The reason for the negative development was, „a death spiral in quality, sheer disinterest among readers or reasons peculiar to given locales for that development“ (CNBC, 2019). According to the CNBC „many Americans no longer have someone watching the city council for them, chronicling the soccer exploits of their children or reporting on the kindly neighbor who died of cancer“ (ibid.).
Between 2005 and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, about 2 100 local newspapers in the United States were discontinued. Due to a strong downward spiral, the consequences of the digital revolution and the recession in 2008, once successful newspapers increasingly became so-called "ghost newspapers" that no longer have resources that can provide quality journalism in smaller communities (cf. Sullivan, 2021 ).But the decline of local journalism is not just a crisis rolling across much of the United States, Europe is also increasingly suffering from a lack of local media providers. In the United Kingdom, between 2005 and 2018, "there was a net loss of 245 news titles” (Adams, 2019).
The local news crisis is also serious in Germany. In a long-term study for the magazine Media Perspektiven, Horst Röper looked at daily newspapers in the year 2020. Here it is noticeable that diversity in local journalism is suffering from declining advertising revenues, editorial closures and forced cooperation with former rival media. The development leads to local journalism often being dependent on only one source (Röper, 2020, p. 331).
2.1.1 The relevance of local news
An EU press release entitled "Local journalism under serious threat across Europe" (2021) stresses the importance of restoring the economic viability of the European media sector through a comprehensive strategy. Currently, local and regional media are in a particularly difficult situation. They are bound to "geographically limited audiences and target groups“ (Klenze, 2021), which often limits their growth. The financial situation of local and regional media is therefore alarming (cf. ibd.).
In this context, local media play a relevant role in an increasingly complex world. According to Mika Beuster, Member of the Federal Board of the German Journalists' Association, local journalists provide security in today's information chaos and are an important instance that holds society together in times of crisis (cf. Beuster, 2020).
2.2. Local journalism in the times of digitization and social media
The increasing popularity of digital intermediaries, such as search engines and social media, is changing today's media world. This development poses great challenges for media com-
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Figure 2: Proportion that accessed news via a smartphone in the last week UK: Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism panies - but it also offers them opportunities (cf. Nielsen & Ganter, 2017, p. 14).
Digitalisation is changing the work in newsrooms and news practice. The task of today's journalist is no longer reduced to producing and editing texts. In the digital age, journalists increasingly need to be able to “produce and process [...] video and sound in their reporting” (Hess & Waller, 2017, p. 137).
Social media are now increasingly integrated into everyday editorial life - as channels to gain access, verify and spread information (Vazquez-Herrero et al., 2019, p. 1). Media platforms today are „mobile, networked, and wearable “ (ibid.) and offer „a host of new and innovative content and communication capabilities“ (Pavlik et al., 2019, p.191, in Vazquez- Herrero et al., 2019, p. 1).
According to the Reuter Institute Digital News Report 2021 in the UK, the smartphone was the most used device for digitally accessing news with 68%. The gap with the second most used device, the computer (43%), has been growing steadily since 2017. (cf. Newman, 2022, p.25).
The digital transformation leads to a redefinition of journalistic norms and everyday practices (cf. Spyridou et al. 2013; Van Der Haak et al. 2012, in Vazquez-Herrero, et al., 2019, p.1). It changes both the way editorial offices structure and organise themselves and the journalistic content (cf. Pavlik, 2000, p. 191, in: Vazquez-Herrero et al., 2019, p. 1).
Local news has long since ceased to be distributed exclusively via printed newspapers. On the internet, local media providers often offer e-paper services or distribute content on their own websites or in social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. The two platforms allow local news to embed articles in a post and direct readership to their website.
2.2.1 Social media: When the consumer becomes an interactive user
Through their mobile devices, young users today find their way to media platforms within seconds (cf. Boczkowski et al. 2017, in: Vazquez-Herrero, et al., 2019, p.2). Mobile news consumption habits are increasing and will become more relevant for the next generation and for the news industry in the future (cf. Chan-Olmsted et al., 2013, in: Vazquez-Herrero et al., 2019, p.2).
With the rise of internet journalism, the position of the media consumer has changed. The term "media consumer" describes the reader, viewer or listener of news content as a passive consumer (cf. Larsson, 2018, p. 2228). In this context, the role of the respective person today clearly goes beyond that of the media consumer.
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