Procedimiento

There are only a small number of studies linking community newspapers to social capital (Kreuters et al., 1998; Sullivan 2002; Galper, 2002). Krueters et al. (1998) was the earliest study to measure community social capital using content analysis of community newspapers. The measurement included evaluating the community newspaper content of two communities. This appears to be the only study available to-date using a content analysis for coding social capital. Kreuters et al. (1998) make the point that at the time of the study there were no valid measures of social capital at the community level. Significant studies including indicators measuring social capital at the community level since the paper was written include Onyx and Bullen (2000), Gittel and Vidal (1998), Temkin and Rohe (1998).

One of the aims of the Kreuters et al. (1998) study was to investigate whether social capital could be measured at the community level using an instrument, taking four constructs from their literature review: trust, civic involvement, social engagement and reciprocity. The study investigated social capital through a structured interview of community stakeholders, a content analysis, and telephone surveys of two communities. Results from the content analysis of newspapers indicated that, of the constructs, only trust had significant variations. The most frequently coded construct was civic involvement, with the least coded being reciprocity. Trust and social engagement varied significantly on each type of article. Trust was coded more often in editorials and letters to the editors.

The overall results of the study showed that social capital levels were difficult to validly assess. Kreuters et al. suggest that perhaps in subsequent studies, social capital framed at the community level should be framed within the context of a specific issue. Their second explanation for lack of association between variables in the results is that organisational level social capital and population social capital may be interdependent parts of a larger model of social capital.

Galper’s (2002) study relates community newspaper circulation size in geographic areas to social capital. The study measures social capital based on charitable giving and volunteering at the United States county level. Characteristics of individuals were gained from the 1990 census, per capita wages and salaries by county of residents, and included the Monday to Friday community newspaper readership rates for 1997. Galper (2002) states that ‘counties with strong newspaper rates have a population informed and involved with the community’ (p. 29). He notes that some counties have readership rates of over 100%, showing multiple newspaper subscriptions. This fact could also be the result of many former residents subscribing. He concludes that:

‘Social capital’ is concentrated in small mature counties, with small populations, high newspaper readership rates, moderated incomes and low unemployment. Average counties have large populations and average social capital. (p. 29)

To obtain his findings, Galper (2002) uses a four-step cluster analysis of community characteristics gained from County Business Patterns 1995, and ‘distress’ variables (local area unemployment statistics and crime reported per capita). Galper’s study furnishes a tool for future measurement of social capital related to community newspapers in the United States.

Both Norris (1996) and Galper’s (2002) studies re-confirm Putnam’s statement that newspaper readership is associated with social capital. Galper’s study places social capital in set and defined areas and, by deduction, associated with community newspapers.

Summary

Social capital arises from the fundamental human principles guiding goodness and benevolence and is underpinned by sympathy (Hume, 1739; Halifan, 1916). While social capital literature originally pertained to relations between individuals, the literature scope broadened to includethe ‘public good’ (Coleman, 1990; Putnam, 1993a, 1993b, 1995).

Trust as a component of social capital is also seen in the symbiotic relationship between communities and their newspapers. Community newspapers are increasing in numbers. In turn they function to assist community progress, development, identity and community ‘ties’.

Networks, as the functional structures of social capital, allow relationships to both act as resources affecting social capital and to be an outcome of social capital (Falk & Kilpatrick,

2000; Allen, 2001). Where social capital networks at the theoretical level ‘join’ community newspapers through enabling community communications, they act equally as a resource for relations to occur, through dynamic interactions, and produce outcomes, for example, the generation of civic participation. Social capital in community development literature is seen as a process generating ‘positive norms and values’ (Kilpatrick et al., 2003; McCleneghan, 2000). The use of the positive in newspaper reporting is both acknowledged and called for; its presence leads to community empowerment.

Newspaper readership is associated with high levels of social capital (Putnam, 1995, 2000; Sulivan, 2001; Galper, 2002), and the debate over declining social capital has acted to combine the multi-disciplinary theory surrounding readership and social capital. Arguments over declining social capital are strong in the United States, though of less concern in Australia (Cox, 1995, 1998) and not noted in either Europe or the United Kingdom. Galper’s (2002) United States study confirms that social capital is concentrated in small mature counties, with small populations and high newspaper readership. Studies noting the presence of social capital in the United States and Australia suggest that social capital is present most noticeably at the community or grass-roots level and is linked to high newspaper readership (Kenyon, 1999; Kenyon & Black, 2001; McManamey & Falk, 2001; Sullivan 2002; Galper, 2002).