Delaware County, Pennsylvania, has had a moment in pop culture. The inspiration behind many shows, movies and comedy segments, the place colloquially known as Delco has developed name recognition well beyond its borders, located southwest of Philadelphia.

But there is much more to Delaware County than what you may see on clips or memes. In fact, Delaware County boasts more diversity and complexity than most other counties in the nation. It has urban, suburban and more rural communities. It is increasingly diverse racially, boasting a nonwhite population of nearly 40 percent. It also has great diversity economically, hosting several communities along the historic Philadelphia Main Line, while also holding some of the state's most economically depressed municipalities.

In short, while many people view Delco a certain way, others, including many residents of the county, see Delaware County through a different lens.

“I mean, ‘Delco’ itself wasn't a thing until maybe 20 years ago,” said one local resident interviewed for this project. “It really wasn't. It was like the suburbs or Delaware County. But now it's like, kind of embraced.”

Delaware County is a historic and culturally rich location within Pennsylvania and the United States. As the nation has changed, the area has also undergone changes in terms of demographics, politics and how people learn about important information within their communities. With its inaugural research project, the Center for Community-Engaged Media has focused on Delaware County to better understand how information networks operate in the city and how information connects neighbors in its rapidly changing communities.

The land that makes up Delaware County is the ancestral home of the Lenni Lenape, an indigenous people who lived in the area for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. The first to arrive were the Dutch and Swedish populations, who purchased land from the Lenape near Chester in the 1640s. William Penn, in the 1680s,  later established treaties with the Lenape—which were subsequently broken—thus making Delaware County an older English settlement than the city to the north.

Farming and shipping drove the area’s growth in the 1800s, while industry and European Immigration brought in a second wave of inhabitants in the first part of the 20th century. Following the Second World War, Delaware County experienced another population boom, as it became a suburban community for individuals leaving Philadelphia. Delaware County also earned a reputation as a presidential bellwether county, even though, locally, it was largely dominated by Republicans. And it is this particular background—a suburban, mixed-income community of largely white residents—that has framed much of the perception of Delaware County in popular culture today.

Another major shift in demographics, however, has taken place within Delaware County. Over the past 20 years, the county has become significantly more diverse, fueled by immigration, migration of African Americans from Philadelphia and subsequent white flight from many communities near the county’s border with the city. Certain communities in Delaware County, such as Yeadon and Chester, have always had larger African American populations. But this shift can be clearly seen in places like Landsdowne. Almost 75 percent white in 2000, the borough is now a majority African American community.

Delco has also seen a massive shift politically. In 2019, for the first time in 150 years, the board responsible for governing Delaware County shifted to the Democrats. In the time since, Democrats have won even more offices across the county, including several victories for African Americans.

Why has the change taken place? What do local residents feel about the change? How have these changes impacted how they receive and share news and information? These are all questions this project hopes to answer. These are also questions that just about every community should grapple with on a continuing basis.

One of the great weaknesses of our news and civic infrastructure is that, even with the presence of newsrooms and universities, full pictures of what happens within communities on a day-to-day basis, or who is being served or not served, rarely exist. Newsrooms too often focus on negative, episodic events when covering local communities. Additionally, we rarely understand the breadth and depth of the various civic institutions serving a community, especially smaller ones that serve traditionally neglected segments of a community. If we are to get a full understanding of what’s happening in our communities, we need to make efforts to get a full picture of who is in our communities and what they are doing on a day-to-day basis.

That is where community asset mapping plays a role. And that is what we will discuss next in our series on Delaware County.