Who Will Tell the Stories of Health Inequities? Platform Challenges (and Opportunities) in Local Civic Information Infrastructure

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231214398
• Author: Ava Francesca Battocchio,Kjerstin Thorson,Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice,Marisa Smith,Yingying Chen,Stephanie Edgerly,Kelley Cotter,Hyesun Choung,Chuqing Dong,Moldir Moldagaliyeva,Christopher E. Etheridge
• Date: 01 May 2023
• Subject Matter: Part III: Demand

144 ANNALS, AAPSS, 707, May 2023

DOI: 10.1177/00027162231214398

Who Will Tell

the Stories of

Health

Inequities?

Platform

Challenges (and

Opportunities)

in Local Civic

Information

Infrastructure

By

AVA FRANCESCA

BATTOCCHIO,

KJERSTIN THORSON,

DAN HIAESHUTTER-RICE,

MARISA SMITH,

YINGYING CHEN,

STEPHANIE EDGERLY,

KELLEY COTTER,

HYESUN CHOUNG,

CHUQING DONG,

MOLDIR MOLDAGALIYEVA,

and

CHRISTOPHER E.

ETHERIDGE

1214398ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYWHO WILL TELL THE STORIES OF HEALTH INEQUITIES?

research-article2023

The decline in the number and quality of local news

media has led to digital platforms becoming more cen-

tral in circulating local information, affecting what

information and issues are accessible to community

residents. We demonstrate this by focusing on health

disparities related to COVID-19, examining how both

news and non-news civic organizations in six Great

Lakes communities addressed pandemic-related racial

inequities. Our analysis of interviews and a corpus of

Facebook posts suggest that (1) very little discussion of

health disparities emerged on Facebook from organiza-

tions in these communities, and (2) the majority of this

content was produced by local news outlets. This article

offers a vision of what local content might look like in

the absence of robust local news outlets and highlights

potential consequences of local civic information infra-

structure with digital platforms playing a central role.

Keywords: local news; social media; Facebook; com-

munication infrastructure; nonprofits;

local communities

The rapid decline of local news media has

led to a dearth of community news content

Correspondence: battocch@msu.edu

Ava Francesca Battocchio is a doctoral candidate in

information and media in the College of Communi-

cation Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University.

Their research explores rural, remote, and postindus-

trial community structures, media ecology, and civic

infrastructure.

Kjerstin Thorson is a professor in the College of

Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State

University. Her work examines the role of digital plat-

forms in shaping exposure to political information.

Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice is an assistant professor in the

College of Communication Arts and Sciences at

Michigan State University. He studies political commu-

nication with a specific focus on how communication

technologies shape content and behaviors.

Marisa Smith is an assistant professor in the College of

Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State

University. Her work investigates the sociopolitical

implications of stereotypical portrayals, including

racial attitudes and political polarization.

WHO WILL TELL THE STORIES OF HEALTH INEQUITIES? 145

(Abernathy 2020; Napoli et al. 2018). Community organizations are increasingly

turning to social media to communicate directly with local audiences, and news

organizations are increasingly relying on platforms for local visibility. As a result,

the production and circulation of local civic information are entangled with the

communication logics that govern social media platforms such as Facebook, and

journalistic news sources are arguably becoming de-centered in local communi-

ties (Robinson 2017; Tandoc 2019). This process of platformization of local civic

information infrastructure has consequences for the production and circulation

of information about community issues (Thorson et al. 2020).

The process of platformization—that is, the increasing centrality of digital

platforms across multiple domains of everyday life—has received substantial

attention in the literature, but little of that work has addressed its characteristics

in local community contexts. Similarly, we are beginning to know a lot about the

causes and consequences of local news deserts, but we know much less about

how other, non-news community actors have responded to increased direct

access to audiences via digital platforms, perhaps stepping into the void left by

shrinking local news media.

This state of affairs goes to the heart of key questions related to critical infor-

mation needs in local communities (Friedland, this volume). We can consider the

following: Does it matter which organizational actors in communities gather and

Yingying Chen is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the

Renmin University of China. Her research focuses on the intersection of political communica-

tion, science communication, information diffusion, and computational social science methods.

Stephanie Edgerly is a professor in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Her research explores how changes in the media environment impact audience understanding

and engagement with news.

Kelley Cotter is an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University. Her research explores

how data-centric technologies shape social, cultural, and political life, and vice versa.

Hyesun Choung is an assistant professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences

at Michigan State University. Her research examines social and ethical implications of emerg-

ing information technologies.

Chuqing Dong is an assistant professor at the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at

Michigan State University. Her research focuses on public relations, nonprofit communication,

and social responsibility.

Moldir Moldagaliyeva is a doctoral student in information and media in the College of

Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University. She is interested in digital and

social media use, and information quality.

Christopher E. Etheridge is an assistant professor in the William Allen White School of

Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. His research considers the

relationship between community news and information-seeking behaviors.

NOTE: Authorship order for coauthors Edgerly thru Etheridge has been randomized due to

equal contributions. This article, as well as the data set behind it, would not have been possible

without the help of the Civic Infrastructure Lab’s undergraduate and master’s research assis-

tants from 2020 to 2022. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the following peo-

ple: Katherine Denzin, Melody Draeger, Sabrina Kohlmeier, Brandi Stover, and Lydia Werth.