Analyze, Publish, and Share Your Data
Once the information for all outlets on your master list have been gathered, you have many options for assessing what the data reveal about your local news ecosystem. We focus here on a few basic steps, and we encourage readers to refer to the local news assessment reports listed in the Appendix for further ideas and inspiration. At a minimum, you should plan for the following:
1. Pre-release your database to subject matter experts
Pre-release your database to a select and trusted audience of local journalism leaders, researchers, and others who can probe the data for outlets that may be missing or key information that may be incorrect.
2. Publish the full master list publicly
Publish the full master list publicly in a format that does not allow readers to make changes (to protect the integrity of the data). (Some researchers particularly like the data visualization tool Tableau for building interactive dashboards and other visualizations).
3. Welcome public input
You can set up a link that allows readers to offer corrections and suggestions that your team will vet before making any adjustments to the database. NOTE that if you plan to allow for public input and adjustments to the database after publication, you’ll want to note prominently in your report and on your website that the data are a work in progress and subject to change over time. Otherwise, you can save all suggestions and corrections for the next iteration of your report – remembering that the best case scenario is to update your data periodically and plan to produce ongoing reports (see the discussion of longitudinal analysis in the Introduction above).
4. Calculate frequencies and percentages of all quantitative variables.
These simple statistics can tell a powerful story. For example, what percentage of counties in your state have only one or two local news outlets, and how does that compare to other areas of the state? What are the demographic characteristics of those counties? How many outlets in your locale are locally-owned versus owned by out-of-state entities? How many are regularly producing original local news, versus primarily curating content from other sources? While more sophisticated analyses are also possible (for example, correlations between county characteristics and the characteristics of newsrooms) given enough time, resources, and expertise on your team, simple statistics are the easiest to convey to a wide variety of audiences.
5. Produce a report that highlights key findings.
Your report can be as concise or as detailed as you have the capacity to produce, and depending on what audiences you want to reach. When writing your report and/or designing a website, keep your intended audiences in mind: What are the positive signs along with the gaps or challenges your audiences will be most interested in? For example, in general, potential funders may want to learn what counties, regions, or communities of identity in your state are currently least well-served by local media. Policy-makers may want to know what proportion of local media are locally-owned, or how many journalists on average are employed by local newsrooms. Also, visually representing where outlets are concentrated and where they are more sparsely distributed can be a powerful way to represent the state of local news in your locale. We suggest perusing the various reports cited here for ideas.
6. Provide a webinar or public event to share the findings
If possible, provide a webinar or public event to share the findings of your report with key audiences, including funders, local Press Forward chapters, journalism support organizations, local experts, community leaders, policy-makers, or other key constituencies. Extra credit: Record the webinar or event then upload and share on your website and social media.
Be sure to contact the LNIC so we can consider including the report in our larger collection of news studies.
CONTINUE READING: CONCLUSION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS >
