Remote News Delivery Down Under

Abstract

Newspapers represent 'communities talking to themselves'.1 We report on the resuscitation in October 2003 of a long-dead nineteenth and twentieth century community newspaper in the drought-stricken rural outback of Queensland, Australia, using simple digital publishing systems with reporting and production staff based near the Great Barrier Reef, on the coast more than 735 kilometres away to the north-east. The successful project illustrated the importance of local editorial control within the community newspaper model, as well as the potential of journalism to build positive community processes and structures during such projects. A survey of people who bought or read the first new edition also revealed an unexpectedly high capacity, given current received wisdom of 'the digital divide', within the financially-depressed town's residents to use emerging digital technologies to receive news and informational content. When coupled with data gathered from other recent surveys of news technology use, the authors identify key areas for future research into news distribution.