Within the scope of the thesis we address the following questions:1. What should the LDOS for a dipole with an electric-dipole allowed transition actually be if one would have a hypothetical magnetic mirror or magnetic and electric metasurface?2. Up to what point are effective ε and μ derived from far-field normal-incidence data actually good descriptors for a metamaterial, as one brings a probe from the far field into the near field to measure LDOS?3. Can we strengthen or refute the claim that a single split ring is a magnetic dipole scatterer by probing if its radiation damping actually traces out magnetic LDOS?4. How do single building-block magnetism on one hand, and packing of objects in 2D periodic arrays on the other hand that must have collective Bloch modes conspire to give magnetic signatures in LDOS, and in far-field observables?