Providing visibility from an abundance perspective; most people live in information oceans, not news deserts. Journalists are lifeboats and beacons, pointing toward verified facts, and lifting people above partisanship and misinformation.
Original research, commissioned by the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund, to expand the definition of “local news” and leverage AI to gain a deeper understanding of Charlotte's civic information landscape.
Report pdf
Mapping Local News in Charlotte (Columbia Journalism Review, April 23, 2026)
Charlotte landscape research scrolly-telly (interactive explainer)
"What Mapping Charlotte Can Teach Us About Local News" (Columbia Journalism Review, April 23, 2026)
"Covering the Raids" (Columbia Journalism Review, December 4, 2025)
"Analyzing News and Information Landscapes from the Ground Up" (Columbia Journalism Review, June 5, 2025)
The State of Local News Report, 2023. Local News Initiative, Northwestern University
Wealthier, urban Americans have access to more local news – while roughly half of US counties have only one outlet or less. (The Conversation, Feb. 21, 2024)
What Makes for Robust Local News Provision? Structural Correlates of Local News Coverage for an Entire U.S. State, and Mapping Local News Using a New Method. (Journalism and Media, Apr. 8, 2023)
What makes for robust local news provision? Looking at the structural correlates of local news coverage for an entire U.S. state, and mapping local news using a new method. (Columbia Journalism Review, Feb. 18, 2021)
Q&A: Sarah Stonbely on remapping local news at the municipal level. (Columbia Journalism Review, Feb. 16, 2021)
The topography of local news: A new map. (Columbia Journalism Review, Apr. 29, 2020)
Local Journalism and the Information Needs of Local Communities: Toward a Scalable Assessment Approach. (Journalism Practice, Aug. 19, 2019)
Mapping local news ecosystems, Phase 1: Meta-review of the literature, a typology of ecosystem studies, and a proposed method for the ideal ecosystem study. (Center for Cooperative Media, Jan. 23, 2019)
Mapping the local news ecosystem — with scale but detail. (Nieman Journalism Lab, Dec. 17, 2018)
There isn't one best way to map local news ecosystems. But can we do it better? (Nieman Journalism Lab, Dec. 5, 2018)
Understanding Media Diversity Using Media Ecosystem Analysis: A Review of the Field and Recommendations for a Way Forward. (New America Foundation, May 2012)
Mapping Digital Media: United States. (Open Society Foundations, Aug. 24, 2011)
