THE ROLE OF THE NEWSPAPER AS A COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL BETWEEN A LOCAL COMMUNITY AND A REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

Abstract

<p>This thesis presents the results of a content analysis study of the extent and nature of Regional Government coverage in three newspapers. Two community weeklies and a metropolitan daily serving the town of Dundas in the Hamilton-Wentworth Region of Ontario were selected.</p> <p>The probable maximum amount of coverage possible was estimated from personal interviews with production staff of other papers. For each of the sampled papers, the content measured was compared to these estimates and to the results for the other sampled papers.</p> <p>The results showed that, contrary to some comments found in the literature, the weekly papers provided extensive coverage of regional government activities and displayed characteristics which other authors have identified as important to effective coverage. Based on these results it is concluded that the local newspapers are acting as communications channels between this local community and Regional Government, at close to their capacity to do so.</p> <p>Similar amounts of coverage were not found in the daily, therefore it has not had this role. Some reasons for this are postulated in the conclusions.</p>