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"Wayne's World" and "Between Two Ferns" have some company!

Community ("cable access") television stations are producing more and more local news, and – if challenges can be met – could become part of the solution to gaping local "news hole" in small cities and towns across the country. But in many cases, viewership appears to be relatively low, the majority of the content is "soft news," and journalists shy from taking a critical approach.

Those were the findings communications lecturer Jane Regan presented at the July meeting of the International Association for Media and Communication Research in Leicester, U.K., thanks in part to support from ´ºÃÎÖ±²¥. She and a former colleague from Somerville Community Access TV, Erica Jones, conducted the research over three months last spring and also presented their results to a packed room at the national Alliance for Community Media conference in Boston in August.

Scores of community media centers are using innovative models that borrow from mainstream media and from classrooms-turned-newsrooms at colleges and universities, Regan and Jones found. But there are challenges. In addition to those noted above, most of the news efforts have not yet adopted the engagement tools being used by mainstream media and they often work in "news silos" rather than sharing and exchanging with other local news producers in order to increase reach and impact.

"There is much work to be done to make these mostly new local journalism efforts more relevant, more critical, and also more viewed and read," Regan added. "But we were thrilled to discover so many staff and volunteers dedicated to covering their communities."

Anyine interested in reading the pre-publication version of New(s) Access: Local News and Alternative Journalism at U.S. Community Television Stations can email jregan@salemstate.edu