ABSTRACT
Hyperlocal media are typically considered as organized entities, deliberately set up with a journalistic purpose. However, recently we have seen the emergence of bottom-up, unstructured, loosely organized and little monitored Facebook groups that bring together residents and information concerning a specific locality. In these groups, people share information and news related to the neighborhood, announce and promote events, or report neighborhood problems. Notwithstanding the obvious organizational differences between hyperlocal media and local Facebook groups, this observation raises the question to what extent these bottom-up online environments show characteristics and have consequences that are similar to hyperlocal media operations. Using a mixed-method design and informed by Communication Infrastructure Theory and the concepts of ambient and affective social news streams, we studied six Facebook groups situated in Ghent, a densely populated city in the northern part of Belgium. We found that the Facebook groups are similar to hyperlocal media in terms of circulating local information and engendering local attachment and civic engagement, yet without conforming to journalistic norms nor their members considering themselves to be local journalists.
