Rates, Roads and Rubbish

BACKGROUND Journalism scholarship generally agrees community-run Hyperlocal news outlets are important democratic institutions since local commercial news’ decline (Carson et al, 2016; Harte, et al, 2019). However, the democratic function of Hyperlocal journalists (as opposed to Hyperlocal news outlets) has not been explored. This three-piece portfolio - developed while I was local government reporter for The Westsider Hyperlocal news outlet - fills this gap in the body of knowledge by asking: "What is the democratic function of Hyperlocal journalism from a professional practitioner’s perspective?" CONTRIBUTION ‘Rates, Roads and Rubbish’ used journalism methodology: direct observation; document analysis; stakeholder interviews. I was the only journalist to attend the nine council meetings over three months. Other commercial coverage relied on livestream recordings. This meant I was alone in observing protests outside council chambers during the Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay and Brimbank meetings. The resulting pieces led to more well-rounded, contextualised knowledge on the public sphere and a more democratically-informed inner west community. SIGNIFICANCE Westsider editor and former senior ABC journalist, Barbara Heggen peer-reviewed (subedited) each piece, commenting on my work’s excellence. Volunteer-run hyperlocals struggle to be recognised as legitimate journalistic forums, so it is significant that local civic institutions acknowledge my practice by including me – as a journalist – in their communications. Further, the Westsider’s owning company, the Inner West Community Foundation, recognised my work’s significance at board level. Research results were double-blind peer-reviewed and accepted for presentation at the December 2023 Journalism Education and Research Association conference, demonstrating their scholarly significance.