User:Bearcat/Local media

Wikipedia does not have a rule that local media coverage in a subject's own hometown is entirely inadmissible for use as sourcing. However, if local coverage in the subject's own hometown is all the subject has, that may not be enough to secure the subject's notability on pure WP:GNG grounds all by itself.

If a subject has a strong notability claim, local coverage can absolutely be a valid way to flesh out their article. A national legislator who passes WP:NPOL #1, for example, is obviously going to receive a large portion of their coverage in the local media of the area they represent; a musician or actor who surpasses WP:NMUSIC or WP:NACTOR criteria, such as winning a Grammy or an Oscar, is almost certainly going to receive some measure of "local native makes it big" coverage in their hometown media, which may well delve into details of their early pre-fame life (such as where they went to high school) that aren't sourceable anywhere else. In such cases, the local coverage is perfectly legitimate for use, because the article also features evidence of nationalized notability alongside the local stuff.

However, if you're shooting for "hasn't met any specific notability criterion, but is notable because media coverage exists", then purely local media coverage in local-interest contexts is not necessarily going to be sufficient. A municipal councillor or mayor, who has to be measured against NPOL #2, has not necessarily cleared the bar just because the article has a couple of hits of local coverage in it — a large volume of local coverage, supporting a genuinely substantial article that covers the person's political impact in detail, will probably be accepted, but an article that just minimally verifies the person's existence likely will not be. A non-winning candidate for political office is not exempted from NPOL just because the article cites a bit of run of the mill local campaign coverage. A musician or actor who has not otherwise met NMUSIC or NACTOR criteria is not exempted from those criteria just because they've been profiled in their hometown newspaper a couple of times.

The same test also applies to university and college student media. It can be valid for use if it verifies additional facts about a person who has met other inclusion criteria and has other, stronger sourcing alongside it — for instance, an article in the student media of a notable person's alma mater might, again, verify facts (like the specific years they attended the institution, or the fact that they started a band that played the student pub a few times but then broke up) that aren't sourceable anywhere else. However, a person will not be deemed to pass GNG on the basis of student media coverage alone; for example, the president of a university's student union does not qualify for permanent inclusion in an international encyclopedia just because their time on the student union got coverage in the university's student newspaper, and that band that played the student pub three times before breaking up aren't going to pass NMUSIC #1 just because the student newspaper reviewed those three shows.