Mapping Gaps in Local News Coverage

Building on Anderson’s concept of imagined communities and Ball-Rokeach’s work on Communication Infrastructure Theory, we demonstrate how cartographic mapping can be used to help communities understand how the media construct their geographic area. We compare media coverage to other datasets about particular geographies, documenting gaps between the two. We do this work through four case studies. Each case study illustrates a unique way in which external data can be compared to coverage. We compare media coverage of Philadelphia locations to how many people live in various regions, the issues emphasized in the media and those that Philadelphia residents say are important for their neighborhoods, media coverage of crime that mentions various locations to crime statistics in Chicago, and data about the number of COVID cases in different parts of Chicago to news organizations’ Facebook posts about the disease. The gaps revealed by these analyses, we propose, allow for reflection on whether media coverage is serving the needs of communities. We conclude by discussing lessons learned about using mapping across these projects, and how similar studies can be used by communities and newsrooms.