A new report on regional audiences is now available

Engaged journalism in the heartland: Understanding regional news audiences

Authors: Sora Park, TJ Thomson and Jee Young Lee

Prof Sora Park
Dr TJ Thomson
Dr Jee Young Lee

We’re excited to announce the release of Engaged journalism in the heartland: Understanding regional news audiences, a new report that examines how to situate audiences at the centre of the local news ecosystem as a way to encourage local news consumption. 

Local news often serves as the primary source of information about the community and is an essential platform for civic participation. However, the provision of local news in regional Australia is declining, while audience needs are shifting. We investigate the gap between journalistic norms and audiences’ perception through an empirical investigation of what audiences want from local news and how they might be involved in the production and dissemination of news. 

We pay special attention to visual news given that smartphones are an important part of the local news landscape, both in its production and consumption. To better understand how audience participation can strengthen the relationship with local news media, we apply the concept of engaged journalism.  

The study confirms a void in the provision of local news as news organisations struggle to find optimal business models to serve the local community. We also find that the shift to digital in regional news has enabled a unique news ecosystem where audiences are actively engaged in the generation of news through digital platforms, especially using visual formats. 

The report includes key recommendations for the local news industry and stakeholders.  

The research is funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Project ‘Heartbeat of Australia: Tracking, Understanding and Engaging News Audiences’ and Discovery Early Career Researcher Award ‘Addressing the Crisis of Local Visual News in Regional and Remote Australia’.   

Download a copy of the report here:

Engaged Journalism in the HeartlandDownload

Park, S., Thomson, T J., & Lee, J. (2025). Engaged journalism in the heartland: Understanding regional news audiences. University of Canberra and RMIT University. https://doi.org/10.60836/djte-h654.