Los Angeles Ethnic Media Ecosystem
Map
MBC designed and developed a data visualization of news ecosystems in Los Angeles County as a means to identify reach and gaps in information dissemination to socioeconomically and racially diverse Los Angeles County residents.
Methods and Sources
Methodology:
Using guidelines derived from the Democracy Funds “Guide to Assessing Your Local News Ecosystem” and the Impact Architects “Healthy News & Information Ecosystem Impact Playbook”, publications were sourced though compiling independent research and existing lists of minority owned or operated publications. The visualization consists of several interactive diagrams that use nesting to demonstrate relationships between the available ethnic media outlets in Los Angeles County and its demographic make up. Phase 1 research topic include: number of organizations by ethnicity vs the LA County ethnic makeup, organization geographic coverage clusters (indeterminant), number of organizations by profit model, delivery of media, media topic, media language and comparisons of publications across scale.
External Sources: FCC, Democracy Fund, Impact Architects, Esri
In phase one, early research revealed the highly integrated nature of the county’s ethnic communities demand a more demographic focused design, leading to the use of a nested style visualization describing the makeup of nearly 200 media outlets scattered across the target area. The main research challenge was the general inaccessibility of outlet financial and audience data. While this was predicted to a degree, the extent of relationship building and large scale audience surveying needed to develop a detailed landscape assessment went beyond the limits of what then became an initial ecosystem probe.
Number of organizations by race/ethnicity of intended audience. Nesting displays the market share of each race/ethnicity with Latino-focused outlets making up the largest portion of the ecosystem.
Number of organizations by intended audience neighborhood or business zip code if intent unknown. L.A. County is a city uniquely undefined by ethnic borders. These areas cannot be determined by the publication, station, or outlet’s zip code alone.
Number of organizations by topic of publication, station, or outlet content. International news largest audiences are Latino and A.A.P.I. racial groups, while local news is largest with Black and Latino racial groups.
Number of organizations by content delivery method. Digital has the largest share of Los Angeles market, yet most organizations are ill-equipped sufficiently and accurately track and manage pertinent data.
Number of organizations by main content language if Not Bilingual, additional language if Bilingual. While the majority of publications, stations, and outlets are not bilingual, English is not the main language of most ethnic publications.
Number of organizations by size of organization. Capacity of publication, station, or outlet to provide meaningful, well curated media is often subject to limiting factors like number of employees, lack of diverse revenue options, market saturations, etc.
