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Mapping Local News in Charlotte

Columbia Journalism Review · Sarah Stonbely · last updated

By expanding the definition of “news” and leveraging AI, we gained a deeper understanding of the city’s civic information landscape.

When local news mapping gained prominence a decade ago, the widespread concern was with news deserts. Now that local news—from journalism outlets, civic information providers, or independent newsfluencers—is available via social media, newsletters, YouTube, and elsewhere, people are more likely to feel adrift in information oceans. This paradigm shift requires us to reinvent our understanding of local news provision.

At the same time, the advent of artificial intelligence and advanced computational tools has allowed local news mapping to make giant leaps forward. Research can now go beyond the traditional local news outlet census to analyze content for both breadth of topics covered and detailed geographic coverage areas—down to the census-tract level. 

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