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New Initiative to Foster Informed, Engaged Communities

Posted by Peter Keefer on Jan 08, 2010 in Blog

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation deepened its financial commitment to fostering informed, engaged communities with its announcement that it is committing $70 million over the next seven years to community foundations serving the cities and towns where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. The $70 million investment in the new Community Foundation initiative [...]

Welcome to the Knight Commission Blog

Posted by Peter Keefer on Dec 07, 2009 in Blog

This is a new blog of the Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, one of four Knight Foundation media initiatives. The Commission is jointly coordinated by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, directed by Charles M. Firestone, and the Knight Foundation’s Journalism Program, directed by Eric Newton.
We’ll feature commentary from [...]

Knight Silicon Valley: Information Quality & Access by Josh Wilson

Posted by Peter Keefer on Dec 03, 2009 in Blog

Editor’s note: This is being posted for Josh Wilson, who is one of our guest bloggers today.
The other major theme in panel #1 was the problematic access to, and inconsistent quality and relevance of, information sources in the community.
Muhammad Chaudhry noted the “Lack of quality content for local information needs” as well as an opportunity [...]

Commissioners Q&A on Unmet Community Info Needs by Kristie Wells

Posted by Peter Keefer on Dec 03, 2009 in Blog

Question from Danah Boyd:

Seeing a big difference between push and pull strategies. In the past, information was pushed out to the communities.
Now, it seems most organizations are focused on pulling information to aggregate it. What are some of the push strategies you are using to help people who are not online or now pulling news [...]

Media Roundtable: Linjun Fan by Kristie Wells

Posted by Peter Keefer on Dec 03, 2009 in Blog

Linjun created the Albany Today blog a year ago to provide local news to the 16,000 residents in her community. Does not post personal commentaries – stays true to journalism values. Uses photos, slideshows and videos to enhance experience.
Compared to a local newspaper, her blog is richer in content and provides a better user experience. [...]

Knight Silicon Valley: Local Media Fault Lines

Posted by Peter Keefer on Dec 03, 2009 in Blog

Editor’s note: This is being posted for Josh Wilson, who is one of the guest bloggers today at the Knight Commission’s community forum at Google.
I want more from this panel. The fault lines and fragmentation of the Bay Area’s media ecology have been made clear, but I’m not sure the gaps can be bridged.
Linjun Fan [...]

Media Roundtable: Linda O’Bryon by Kristie Wells

Posted by Peter Keefer on Dec 03, 2009 in Blog

Linda is the Chief Content Office for KQED and believes there is no other place in the world that places such emphasis on thought leadership as in Silicon Valley (big ocean, big mountains, big sky…and big thinking). We live in an area of open spaces and open thinking – what happens in Silicon Valley does [...]

Internet Town Halls Increase Constituent Trust

Posted by Peter Keefer on Nov 30, 2009 in Blog

Personal interaction with a member of Congress, even online, has a significant and positive impact on a constituent’s view of the lawmaker and other benefits for democracy according to a recent study conducted by the Congressional Management Foundation and researchers at Harvard, Northeastern, Ohio State and the University of California-Riverside. Approval ratings for members who held online town [...]

Stimulus Leading to More Open Government

Posted by Peter Keefer on Nov 24, 2009 in Blog, Open Government

States are reporting an unexpected public benefit from the federal stimulus program: faster, more streamlined reporting of data that is resulting in increased government transparency.
Federal rules required that states electronically file reports on projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The first reporting deadline was October 10th, with information fed into the [...]

Calls for Greater National Investment in Digital Literacy Grow

Posted by Peter Keefer on Nov 09, 2009 in Blog, Digital Literacy, Universal Broadband

The Knight Commission’s call to promote digital literacy has gotten a boost from several big players recently. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and One Economy Corporation have stepped forward with public calls for greater national investment in digital media education, adding to a growing number of experts who see digital literacy as a [...]

Access to News Wildly Unequal in U.S., Study Says

Posted by Peter Keefer on Oct 02, 2009 in News

Source: The Washington Post

Access to News Wildly Unequal in U.S., Study Says
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 2, 2009
Saving journalism and achieving digital democracy might seem like a pretty tall order.
But that is the task of a high-powered commission that says, in a report being released Friday, that the country’s growing hunger for [...]

Welcome Everyone by Kristie Wells

Posted by Peter Keefer on Sep 07, 2008 in Blog

Things are kicking things off with Peter Shane, Executive Director of the Knight Commission, who is explaining the goals of the Forum, looking to get a more localized view of needs, challenges and opportunities of the community it serves.
The Forum is traveling to three locales to garner a diverse perspective. The first one is today, [...]