Across the country, academics, journalists, and researchers are mapping their states’ news and information ecosystems.

Their approaches vary, but these initiatives seek to understand the fragmented reality of how people access local news and information. Often, it's not just from traditional news organizations like community newspapers, television or radio stations.

The Local News Map in the Community dates back more than a decade. But since researchers at Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media created New Jersey’s first interactive news map in 2020, similar projects have proliferated.

As an instructor at Colorado College, where I direct the School of Journalism, I am fascinated by the way people get local news and information. In a course called “The Future and Sustainability of Local News,” students and I interviewed and surveyed Colorado residents about this. We've created an interactive map that shows Coloradans learning what's happening in communities in all 64 counties in the state.

We're working with the University of Denver and others to launch the Colorado News Map Project for the first time in 2022. It includes more than 600 news and information sources and counting. We update the map regularly, including everything from podcasts and Facebook groups, TikTok and Instagram accounts, to the Substack newsletter and more.

In San Juan, one of the least populous counties in our state, a student learned that "a community member goes door to door telling people about certain incidents or events." Yes, that modern town crier is on our map.

A glance at the chart shows which counties are rich in news and information sources and which are not. It also includes census data on population and demographics.

Local news map project launched

Colorado is one of several states with such a program.

Last year, the university charted the local news ecology in Nebraska, Maryland and Minnesota. Around the same time, projects began in New Mexico, Montana, Wisconsin and Wyoming. They follow maps of Oregon and elsewhere.

Washington State University is using funds from legislative efforts to create maps to support local journalism. It might even inform lawmakers how to enact public policy.

The researchers also sought to assess the local news environment in specific regions, such as New England, southern New Mexico, California's Inland Empire, and cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Detroit.

Framing local news

Those of us who do this labor-intensive research are benefiting from organizations that help make it easier.

Last year, the firm Impact Architects published a News and Information Ecosystems Handbook and accompanying workbook to help researchers compare a community's news and information ecosystems with those of other communities. Resources include how to set a baseline and collect data.

These mapping and assessment initiatives come at a time when local newspapers are shrinking or disappearing from communities. About two papers disappear every week, according to a study by Northwestern University's Local Journalism Project. Coupled with wider funding and staff cuts, this development has led to what researchers call "ghost papers" and "news deserts."

A 2023 Georgia Landscape Study disturbingly found that 17 counties in the state do not have a single professional local news source.

Colorado Methodology

To understand the Colorado landscape, we used a loose approach.

We choose not to be the judge and jury on the legality of our sources. If residents tell us they rely on it or it has other visible impacts on the community, we'll add something to the map. In doing so, we try to reflect the reality of where people are looking for news and information in a county and what is available.

On our map, we note whether a source is a member of a professional news organization and what ownership structure it has. We provide a brief description of each contextual source.

University of Denver researchers Kareem Raouf El Damanhoury and David Coppini initially combined two public databases to obtain a baseline of outlets in every county in Colorado. They also analyzed news coverage for a single weekday in each county in 2021 and measured the number of original and local stories.

Colorado College students then interviewed people in each county to identify additional sources. We sent the survey to local news organizations and distributed it in their communities.

Jesse Holcomb, a journalism professor at Calvin University, has worked on and researched the News Maps project. He found that the "main conflict" was scale and precision.

Scale, he said, allows researchers to make broad, general assertions about the state of the landscape. But that may come at the expense of detail in "hard, bespoke groundwork" at the community level.

"In contrast, studies that prioritize precision and accuracy are often limited to case studies, making it difficult to draw general insights," he said.

Those expanding news maps may seek efficiencies in decision-making, such as identifying news outlets by physical location rather than coverage area.

“The former is easy to measure, but it’s limited in what it can actually tell you,” Holcomb said. “The latter is harder to measure but more rewarding in terms of insights.”

The evolution of news maps

These new generations of local news and information mappers are often located in higher education journalism departments and are equipped with rapidly evolving technological tools.

Their national news ecology study comes as national and local philanthropic organizations are raising funds to help revitalize the nation’s local news scene.

“It’s important for funders in our network to understand not only the geographic communities that individual newsrooms cover, but also the specific audiences they aim to serve and how,” says Press Forward, a network of national charities Manager Melissa Milios Davis said the initiative. “Seeing all this useful information in one place—even with layers of socioeconomic and civic engagement data—helps direct philanthropic dollars to the communities and environments that need it most.”

As these disparate state maps take shape, Sarah Stonbely from the Tower Center for Digital Journalism is building a national registry of local news. It focuses on all citizen information providers. Think community centres, chambers of commerce, local government and even small businesses.

Other initiatives, such as the Citizen Information Index and the Local Journalism Roadmap, advocate a similar approach.

“Just as the local news landscape evolves, so does the local news map,” Stoneberry said. "It's clear that reporters are no longer gatekeepers; there are so many ways people get their news now, especially in local news deserts. Our efforts to provide actionable data about the local news landscape must evolve accordingly."

Local news map near you

As the researchers mapped their communities, they found support from those who had gone through similar experiences.

Academics from multiple universities have formed the Local News Impact Alliance, which works with researchers and practitioners to help develop standards and protocols. Its goal is to "expand rigorous research on local information ecosystems" across the country.

Later this year, the annual Association for Journalism and Mass Communication Education conference is expected to include a panel dedicated to the topic: Mapping the local news ecosystem and filling the gaps.

I plan to represent Colorado's program on the panel. Who knows how different it will look by then.