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A project of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
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On October 17, 2011, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation released the final in a series of eight white papers aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The paper—“Assessing Community Information Needs: A [...]
In an interactive world, journalism must be a trusting partnership between journalists and the public. Building that partnership will require enlightened leadership within traditional and emerging news organizations. And partnerships will require involvement by local governments and foundations, schools and universities, libraries and churches, social groups and, most important, individual citizens.
Re-Imagining Journalism: Local News for a Networked World, a new policy paper by Michael R. Fancher, identifies five strategic areas and specific ideas for promoting experimentation, collaboration and public engagement that are critical for reforming local journalism. The paper calls upon a variety of stakeholders in business, the nonprofit sector, government and community institutions, and [...]
Following on the release of Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication by Peter Levine earlier this month, Norman Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute has published a new white paper that also takes a critical look at the challenges to boosting civic participation and improving the [...]
The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy released its report “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age” in 2009 with 15 recommendations to better meet community information needs. Immediately following the release of “Informing Communities,” the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. [...]
Today the FCC released the findings of its inquiry into the Future of Media, a project begun in early 2010 in response to the Knight Commission. In a report over 450 pages long, author Steve Waldman and the Working Group on Information Needs of Communities inspect the shifting media landscape and lay out how relevant [...]
This Friday the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation release the sixth in a series of white papers aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The paper—“Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive [...]
The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) Summer Conference, June 22-25 in Philadelphia, moves into action a key recommendation of the Knight Commission Report, Recommendation 6, calling for the integration of “digital and media literacy as critical elements for education at all levels”. The conference is offering over 150 workshops, demonstrations, and presentations [...]
Please join us for a webinar on the newly-released “Community Information Toolkit” 2 to 3:30 p.m. EDT April 14 The toolkit helps leaders like you harness the power of information to advance their goals for a better community. It offers a simple, easy-to-use set of tools to help take stock of your community’s news and information resources, and take action to improve them.
The keys to a more open and transparent democracy include increased broadband access and a steady flow of government data into online communities, according to two white papers released by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.
Barbara Cochran, author of Rethinking Public Media, a white paper that proposes strategies for implementing the Knight Commission’s recommendation on public media, has gone on MSNBC to discuss the justification for public funding of public media. Cochran sat down with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and told her that funding public media is “an investment in information [...]
At the 2011 Media Learning Seminar, an annual gathering hosted by the Knight Foundation, hundreds of community foundation leaders and journalism and technology experts previewed the beta version of the Community Information Toolkit, a set of tools and steps designed to help communities take stock of their news and information flow and take actionable steps [...]
Alex Howard, Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Radar, provided a good wrap-up of last week’s Roundtable on implementing the recommendations for government transparency and creating community hubs.
New recommendations for improving local open government and creating online hubs
By Alex Howard · February 25, 2011
Today, the Aspen Institute hosted a roundtable on government transparency [...]
Promoting greater civic engagement and investing in the capacity of citizens to engage with civic information and one another to solve public problems are among the recommendations made by the Knight Commission. Civic Engagement and Community Information: Five Strategies to Revive Civic Communication, a new policy paper by Peter Levine, calls on community and elected [...]
On February 25th the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation released the fourth and fifth in a series of white papers aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The papers—“Government Transparency: Six Strategies for More [...]
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