Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how effectively hyper local news operations in the UK can contribute to the public sphere. In the UK context, it describes hyper local journalism's potential to address the issues of a declining local press, eulogising about a "blossoming of hyper local online ventures" and claiming that "hyper local journalism is not simply a hobby or a pleasant loyalist addition. The book describes the diversity of practice in hyper local blogging, which is as benign as it is incendiary. It explains the discussions of commercialisation and sustainability bring to the surface a tension at the heart of the discourse around what kind of journalism, and what kind of journalist, communities are best served by.