Is Local Really Local Or Just About Me?

Ged Carroll has a post with some interesting thinking about the concept of local at the intersection of digital. While more and more news and information we receive via social and other digital media is becoming locally relevant, Carroll argues that we may need to take a moment to check what local really means. For example, how many of us know more about the neighborhood we work or play in than the one we live in? More:

One of the big things about social media is that it provides useful content at an ever more granular ‘local’ basis than would have been economically possible before… but what does local actually actually mean, and does local news and information have value to consumers? For me, my neighbourhood is central London, I work in Covent Garden and my friends live in west and south London so meeting in Soho or Southbank makes sense because the transport system makes it equally convenient for all of us…. I barely know anybody on my block, many of my neighbours are post-graduate students at Queen Mary College and I have very little local knowledge beyond The Morgan gastro-pub right around the corner from my house, the local sorting office for the Royal Mail, my local coffee shop and the Budgens supermarket next door to it; both of which are right by my closest tube station.

…Local media is very different for every person and the only way to achieve relevance for each person is a huge degree of customisation: on location, on network, on ethnicity and a whole plethora of other factors.

renaissance chambara | Ged Carroll – What does local really mean?