“It was a Real Town Newspaper”: Creating Community-Centered News Myths Through Newspaper Closure Statements

Abstract

ABSTRACT While ample scholarly attention has focused on the effects of news deserts in local communities, very little academic literature has examined the goodbye discourse in the final statements of local newspapers. This article critically explores the collective identity communicated by news organizations during critical incidents such as COVID-19 that proliferated the existing journalism crisis. Guided by new institutionalism theory, this article examines closure statements from 67 local news outlets using critical discourse analysis (CDA). Findings reveal that news organizations use these statements to memorialize institutionalized journalistic myths by valorizing local news. The analysis also reveals the fundamental issues of mythicizing traditional journalism furthered through the creation and proliferation of community news myths. Although critical incidents provide an introspective platform for journalism, our findings suggest that the newspaper crisis will continue without addressing the ideological basis of the normative values and practices that have continuously been reinforced in the industry.