Christopher Ali is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. His research interests focus on communication policy and regulation, critical political economy, critical geography, comparative media systems, localism, and local news. His latest book: Media Localism: The Policies of Place (University of Illinois Press, 2017) addresses the difficulties of defining and regulating local media in the 21^st century in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada and the implications these difficulties have for the long-term viability of local news.