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New Round of Knight Community Information Challenge Now Open

Posted by Amy Garmer on Jan 18, 2012 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Public Service Media

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today opened a new round of funding for the Knight Community Information Challenge. The challenge provides matching grants to community foundations seeking to fund news and information projects.
To submit an application or for further information, go to www.informationneeds.org. Non-foundation community partners may participate, but they must partner [...]

Hobbs: Info literacy must be a community education movement

Posted by Amy Garmer on Jan 17, 2012 in Blog, Digital Literacy, Spotlight

Renee Hobbs, national expert on digital and media literacy who leads the Media Education Lab founded at Temple University, this month took the helm of the new Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island. The Media Education Lab also moves to URI. Hobbs is the author of the Knight Commission-inspired [...]

Fellowship Opportunities to Spur Innovation in Journalism

Posted by Amy Garmer on Jan 12, 2012 in Blog, Featured, Local Journalism

Deadlines are approaching for two fellowship opportunities designed to spur innovation in journalism.
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri is seeking applications for its 2012-2013 class of Reynolds fellows. RJI is seeking proposals for eight-month fellowships that would leverage the university’s technology, research and experimentation to advance innovative ideas in journalism. [...]

Might the new web journalism model be neither for-profit nor nonprofit?

Posted by Amy Garmer on Dec 09, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Local Journalism

There’s a third option, Tom Stites argues: a co-op model that lets communities advance their own interests.

Layoffs and Cutbacks Lead to a New World of News Deserts

Posted by Amy Garmer on Dec 08, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Local Journalism

Perhaps an energizing frame like news desert can widen the aperture of thinking about journalism’s future and sharpen the focus on people’s and democracy’s needs – on journalism as public good.

Taking Stock of the State of Web Journalism

Posted by Amy Garmer on Dec 07, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Public Service Media

The buzz about how bloggers and citizen journalists will save the day, once almost deafening, has died down to a murmur, although the buzz about Twitter, Facebook and cellphone video cameras saving the day has picked up thanks to their powerful contributions to coverage of major breaking stories, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street. But the triumphant march to the digital future, at least when measured in terms of original reporting, has yet to lead anywhere near triumph.

Thierer: Thinking about the Future of Informed Communities and Journalism

Posted by Amy Garmer on Dec 05, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Universal Broadband

Adam Thierer’s most recent op-ed (“Thinking about the Future of Informed Communities and Journalism”) in his Technologies of Freedom column on Forbes.com is worthy of note– and not just because it mentions the work of the Knight Commission and the related series of eight white papers published by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program. [...]

Gary Knell Takes Helm at NPR, Cochran Advises: Fight for Federal Funding

Posted by Amy Garmer on Dec 01, 2011 in Blog, Local Journalism, Public Service Media

Barbara Cochran, the author of “Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive,” has a featured blog post on the Huffington Post front page today making the case for the continuation of modest federal funding for public media. The op-ed, “Why Federal Funds for Public Broadcasting is the Right Decision,” is especially timely as [...]

Assessing Community Information Needs: A Practical Guide

Posted by Amy Garmer on Oct 17, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Open Government, Public Service Media, Spotlight, Universal Broadband, White Paper Series

Free flowing news and information is essential to the health of democratic communities, but not all information environments are equally effective at meeting community information needs. What can a community do to measure the quality of its information environment, identify its information needs and take steps to build a more robust news and information ecosystem?
Assessing [...]

Roundtable on Assessing Community Information Needs

Posted by KnightComm on Oct 16, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Events

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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 [...]

FCC’s Public-Private Broadband Initiative Emphasizes Adoption, Digital Literacy

Posted by Amy Garmer on Oct 12, 2011 in Blog, Digital Literacy, Universal Broadband

Today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will announce a national public-private partnership program designed to increase broadband adoption, elevate digital literacy and assist Americans in searching and training for jobs. The public-private partnership seeks to overcome the top obstacles to broadband adoption, including digital literacy, relevance and cost. Representatives from partner companies, non-profits and think tanks [...]

Progress Announced on Key Recommendations of “Information Needs of Communities” Report

Posted by Amy Garmer on Oct 05, 2011 in Blog, Local Journalism, Public Service Media, Universal Broadband

Two years ago this week, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy released its Informing Communities report, which has served as a catalyst for a broader national conversation on how to bring the benefits and opportunities of the digital age to every community.
The fruits of this ongoing conversation were on [...]

Report Cites Need for More Public Engagement in Open Government Proposals

Posted by Amy Garmer on Aug 31, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Open Government

A new report out this month finds that, while President Obama’s Open Government Directive has been a catalyst for thinking about new ways to engage the public in governance and experiment with new tools and techniques to do so, the plans proposed by most agencies lack important elements and key features to fully and meaningfully [...]

Fancher: “American journalism is at a tipping point”

Posted by KnightComm on Jul 19, 2011 in Blog, Local Journalism, Public Service Media

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.

Journalists and Librarians Finding Common Ground

Posted by Amy Garmer on Jul 01, 2011 in Blog, Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Public Service Media, Universal Broadband

What can journalists and libraries do to create opportunities for local news and civic engagement?
Leading-edge thinkers in both fields have come together recently in several different venues to explore answers to this question. The early feedback on these discussions is that this is a worthwhile topic to discuss at a critical time for both institutions.
In [...]