Kristen Hare

A Q&A with Christopher Ali, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Ali spoke with Poynter over e-mail about why we should care about regulation, what local means these days and what we can learn from his other research.

In the interview, Ali says, "A couple of things need to change if we are really serious about local media in the 21st century. First and foremost, we need to have a more inclusive conversation on the issue of local media. Right now, the conversation, if it takes place at all, seems confined to the major industry players like Comcast or the National Association of Broadcasters. Public and community media organizations are certainly left out, as are indigenous and ethnolinguistic media organizations (like Telemundo or Univision). We need to broaden who is given a seat at the table and who is considered a policy actor. Second, we need to think long and hard about what it means to be local in the digital age and the communication technologies that provide local media. Third, we need to reconsider how we fund and support local media, especially local news. Lastly, in terms of policy, I strongly believe that we need a unified and comprehensive local media policy framework going forward."