We live in a boosterish era that exhorts us to play local and buy local. But what does it mean to support local media? How should we define local media in the first place? Christopher Ali delves into our ideas about localism and their far-reaching repercussions for the discourse of federal media policy and regulation. His critique focuses on the new interest in localism among regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. As he shows, the many different and often contradictory meanings of localism complicate efforts to study local voices. At the same time, market factors and regulators' unwillingness to critically examine local media blunt challenges to the status quo. Ali argues that reconciling the places where we live with the spaces we inhabit will point regulators toward effective policies that strengthens local media. That new approach will again elevate local media to its rightful place as a vital part of the public good.

Christopher Ali is an assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a coauthor of Echoes of Gabriel Tarde: What We Know Better or Different 100 Years Later.

"Energetically written. . . . Crucial topics for understanding what is actually going on behind the scenes of your local nightly news."--Sante Fe New Mexican

"Shines a needed light on the threats that local broadcasters are currently facing. . . . The conversation about media localism is an important one, and this book raises critical questions and posits thought-provoking ideas for a path forward."--Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

"The book is well researched. . . . The conversation about media localism is an important one, and this book raises critical questions and posits thought-provoking ideas for a new path forward."--American Journalism