Where's the Fake News in Hyperlocal Media? Trust amongst Citizen Journalists and Participatory Audiences in Local Facebook Pages

Turner, Jerome and Harte, David (2022) Where's the Fake News in Hyperlocal Media? Trust amongst Citizen Journalists and Participatory Audiences in Local Facebook Pages. In: Responsible Journalism in Conflicted Societies: Trust and Public Service Across New and Old Divides. Routledge, London, pp. 44-58. ISBN 9781003178217

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Abstract

This chapter explores the nature of hyperlocal media content on UK Facebook Pages and Groups and how audiences read and use it. We specifically explore this in relation to discourses of fake news and misinformation in mainstream media, noting the risks of open, citizen-led, participatory platforms such as Facebook. The chapter draws on two ethnographic studies of local Facebook Pages in the West Midlands, UK, including analysis of posts and interactions and interviews with editors and audience members. We discuss factors likely to engender trust in the shared content in these spaces: the editors’ identity as peer residents of the neighbourhood, online and offline; the audience’s moulding of the spaces in their own vision, as they source stories for inclusion. The risks emerge when we recognise that the editors are unable to monitor all interactions and resulting Facebook comments, even if a story started with their initial “facts” – thus, a competency-based trust model (trusting in someone’s shared experience or reliability) must be considered alongside an integrity-based trust model (trusting someone’s motivation). Therefore, we recognise the potential for “fake news” in such platforms, even at a local, everyday level, but also that mainstream media might learn from practices and approaches in hyperlocal media that largely engender trust.

Item Type:	Book Section
Identification Number:	10.4324/9781003178217-5
Dates:	Date Event 30 September 2022 Published
Subjects:	CAH24 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01-05 - media studies
Divisions:	Arts > English and Media > Media
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2026 08:21
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2026 08:21
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17147

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