What Defines “Good Local Journalism”? Focusing on Practices of Local Journalism in Korea

This study examines what makes high-quality local journalism possible by learning from exemplary cases rather than professional failures. Drawing on 236 texts—post-coverage reflections and official commendation statements—from recipients of the Korea Journalists Association's “Journalist of the Month” award (local category) between 2014 and 2023, it offers a systematic, empirically grounded account of the practices behind award-winning local journalism. The analysis identifies the routines that sustain impactful reporting across three stages of the news production process: preliminary reporting (e.g., building trust with informants and recognizing issues from residents’ perspectives), reporting (e.g., thorough examination of materials, on-the-ground reporting, and overcoming obstacles), and additional reporting (e.g., systematic investigative reporting, expanding stories beyond the local area, and searching for solutions). The study's central contribution is to show that the distinctive value of local journalism lies not in performing categorically different practices, but in enacting them where the stakes for the community are immediate, the reporter's embeddedness is deep, and institutional resources are scarce. It thus demonstrates that high-quality local journalism is driven by both individual insight and institutional commitment, and that documenting good practice offers a constructive model for journalists and journalism students to learn from.