KnightComm: Strengthening journalism, communities and democracy in the digital age » News

Dutton: “A Renewed Focus on the Quality of Local News and Information”

KnightComm — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:42:51 +0000

“A Renewed Focus on the Quality of Local News and Information“ by William H. Dutton, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute and Professor of Internet Studies at Oxford University, posted to his blog, August 13, 2010.

The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program is organizing an event focused on News Cities: The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities on August 16, starting at 10:30 a.m. eastern time, which will be an interactive livestream. The Twitter hashtag for this event is #FOCAS10. Their aim is to ‘develop a set of actionable steps to improve the information health of communities.’ This builds on work of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, and renewed focus in the UK on the role of the Internet and the media in local communities…

Knight Commission Presents Workshop on Information Needs

KnightComm — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:37:45 +0000

This article appeared in The Paper of Montgomery County’s (Crawfordsville, Ind.) online edition, thepaper24-7.com, on June 17, 2010.

“Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy & Citizen Participation in the Digital Age” was the opening workshop at the June 11-15 League of Women Voters National Convention in Atlanta Georgia attended by three members of the LWV of Montgomery County.

An overview of the conclusions and 15 recommendations by The Knight Commission on the “Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy” was presented by Charles M. Firestone, executive director of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program.

The three major conclusions of the commission are: people need relevant and credible information to be free and self-governing; people need tools, skills, and understanding to use information effectively; and to pursue their true interests, people need to be engaged with information and …

How to Teach Digital Literacy

Amy Garmer — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:56:58 +0000

[Here is an insightful local perspective on integrating digital literacy into the learning environment from the East Alton Illinois Rotary Club blog, Wednesday, June 02, 2010.]

I n 1900, a girl consults her McGuffey Reader and traces out letters on a small piece of slate as the teacher in her one-room schoolhouse checks her work. In 2010, a boy leans over his laptop computer, preparing to type out a story about his dog; his teacher shows him how to insert a picture into the document. The technology has changed, but the scene is the same: A child learns to be literate.

Today, computer education is part of literacy. The term digital literacy, which describes that combination of traditional reading and writing with computer skills, is about more than learning to type on a keyboard. “The most direct way of fostering digital literacy is to have our students write and produce in digital environments,” says Mark Sample, a professor of English and new media at George Mason University. “It’s not until students produce their own digital texts that their digital literacy can really expand.”

RCFP: Government Commissions Weigh Media’s Options

Amy Garmer — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:50:55 +0000

Article originally published in The News Media & the Law, a publication of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Winter 2010 (Vol. 34, No. 1), page 23.

By Nadia Tamez-Robledo

Amongst the news organizations, journalism schools and media foundations engaged in back-and-forth dialogue about how to save the news industry, two government bodies — the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — have recently injected themselves squarely in the middle of the debate.

The FTC in December held a two-day conference on emerging business models that could help journalism survive in the Internet age. The FCC in January launched its Future of Media project that will prepare a report on how journalism can best thrive in the digital marketplace.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, aware of the concerns government involvement in the press might raise, was quick to point out that the commission developed the project at the media’s behest. “We’re at a pivotal moment in the history of media and communications, because of game-changing new technologies as well as the economic downturn,” Genachowski said in a release when the project was announced in October. “Highly respected entities have called on the FCC to assess these issues . . . while recognizing the government must be scrupulous in abiding by the First Amendment and never dictating or controlling the content of the news.”

The call to action came last October in reports issued by the Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The Knight report asked the government to “direct media policy toward innovation, competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism.” The Columbia report, authored by communications professor Michael Schudson and former executive editor of The Washington Post Leonard Downie, Jr., urged the FCC to divert money from its telephone surcharge, which generates $7 billion per year, to “finance a Fund for Local News that would make grants for advances in local news reporting and innovative ways to support it.”

Op-ed: In the Digital Age, We Need Universal, Affordable Broadband

KnightComm — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:06:10 +0000

Originally published by the Miami Herald 12.06.09

by Eric Newton

Newton is vice president of the journalism program at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

When a big newspaper goes bankrupt — or shuts its doors for good — what’s really at stake?

This year, great American cities asked themselves that question. In Philadelphia and Chicago, papers filed for bankruptcy protection. In Seattle and Denver, the “second daily” closed.

But what does it really mean, for the city in question, for the greater community, for us, as consumers of news? Does it matter?

An august body of experts, everyone from a First Amendment lawyer to a software engineer, traveled the nation to answer that question.

Their conclusions constitute the recently released 118-page report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

The commission says:

Information is as vital to our communities as good schools, safe streets or clean air.
The current financial challenges facing private news media could pose a crisis for democracy.
Journalism does not need saving so much as it needs creating. That makes sense to us here at the Knight Foundation. The Internet has thrown our longtime news delivery systems — tree to paper to press to truck to your driveway — into a state of economic chaos.

But rather than try to turn back the clock, we’re trying to help create what’s coming next.

COMMUNITY ACTION

We have seeded more than a hundred community news experiments — and have been surprised by how many have quickly taken root. At EveryBlock.com, you can find news from 133 neighborhoods in Miami, by block. At Printcasting.com, you see how people can become publishers, starting their own magazines in just five minutes. At Spot.Us, you can see how people donate $10 or $20 to pay for the kinds of news stories they really want to see.

Traditional news organizations also are using digital technology to their advantage. They’re reaching greater numbers than ever, working with local bloggers and citizen journalists, interacting with — rather than talking at — their communities.

The Herald, to its credit, is moving in these creative directions.

What can a community do to help? The Knight Commission offers 15 ideas, from championing news literacy in the public schools, to making public libraries centers for digital training and access; from creating public broadcasting that is more local and more interactive, to building city hall websites that actually make public information easy to understand.

But my favorite is this one:

America needs universal, affordable broadband access. Everyone, no matter their age, race, income or neighborhood, should be able to go online to get whatever they want — video, audio, photos and text — from anywhere in the world as fast as anyone else can.

A NEED FOR ACCESS

In the digital age, countries without high-speed broadband will become second-class nations filled with second-class citizens, able to vote but not knowing why they should; able to work but not knowing how to find a job online.

This isn’t the first time we’ve faced a need to connect the nation. In the 19th century, we linked East and West with the transcontinental railroad. In the 20th, we linked driver to destination with the United States Interstate Highway System.

Today, we need to link people and ideas. Nearly two dozen other nations now rank ahead of the United States in high-speed broadband. That just won’t do.

Locally, the Miami-Dade Broadband Coalition is making a good start on this issue. In a diverse community like this one, they have much to do. They deserve support as they seek stimulus funds to expand broadband here.

Digital cities will be the best markets for local news products, the most interesting laboratories for new ideas, the perfect places to chase the American Dream.

Source:

Video: America’s Digital Inclusion Summit

KnightComm — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:15:31 +0000

[From Knight Foundation Press Room]

Leaders, Citizens Gather at Knight/FCC Forum to Discuss Recommendations in FCC’s National Broadband Plan

Washington, D.C. (March 9, 2010) – A diverse group of citizens and leaders gathered Tuesday in support of strategies that will provide 93 million Americans who have been left behind in the digital age with the tools they need to seek jobs, stay informed and connected, and pursue economic opportunity.

America’s Digital Inclusion Summit at the Newseum focused on the need to break down barriers to broadband as high-speed Internet service becomes increasingly vital to citizens and the nation. The U.S. can meet an ambitious goal – home broadband use by 90% of Americans by 2020, compared to 65% today – by starting with recommendations contained in the National Broadband Plan being developed for Congress by the Federal Communications Commission, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

“In order to ensure long term American competitiveness and prosperity, we must not leave one-third of the nation behind,” Genachowski said. “The National Broadband Plan provides a vision for federal, state and local leadership and partnerships with the private and non-profit communities that will bridge the digital divide and transform America into a nation where broadband expands opportunities for all.”

Knight Commission Co-Chair Ted Olson speaking at the Digital Inclusion Summit

The Summit was co-hosted by the FCC and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Knight President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen said, “Broadband access for all is essential to meeting the information needs of communities in a democracy. Without it, we’ll end up with a new category of second-class citizens. With it, everyone will be able to harness the social and economic opportunities of the digital age.”

Others participating in the Summit included U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan; FCC Commissioners Michael Copps, Meredith Attwell Baker, and Mignon Clyburn; Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.); Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.); Xavier Becerra (D-Cal.); Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA); Ted Olson, co-chair of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities; Rhonda Locklear, a housing specialist with the Lumbee Tribe in Pembroke, N.C.; Garrison Phillips, a writer and Korean War veteran from New York; Alex Kurt, an Americorps Volunteer in St. Paul; Irvin Aviles, a technician with Time Warner Cable in Baltimore; Florence Pearson, Educator, New York N.Y; and Joey Durel, City-Parish President of Lafayette, La.

In addition to hundreds in attendance at the Newseum, many participated via webcast from fcc.gov/live. In Akron, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Philadelphia, people gathered to watch the national webcast and convene local discussions about accelerating broadband adoption in their city or state.

Tuesday’s summit focused on ways to help people take advantage of broadband when it is available to them, known as broadband adoption. A comprehensive survey by the FCC on broadband adoption found that key barriers include the cost of computers or connections, lack of online skills, and lack of understanding about the relevance of broadband applications, with issues for people with disabilities cutting across and beyond those barriers.

The FCC will deliver its National Broadband Plan to Congress on March 17, which will detail strategies for expanding affordable, world-class broadband throughout the county. This will be a strategy for U.S. global leadership in high-speed Internet to create jobs and spur economic growth; to unleash new waves of innovation and investment; and to improve education, health care, energy efficiency, public safety, and the vibrancy of our democracy.

The draft broadband plan makes a number of recommendations on increasing broadband adoption to FCC, Congress and other branches of government and the private and non-profit sectors. They include:

Improve digital literacy for all Americans:
- Public funding for a Digital Literacy Corps to conduct skills training and outreach in communities with low rates of adoption, while building workforce skills for Corps members
- Increase the capacity and knowledge in libraries and community centers to provide digital literacy training
- Creation of an Online Skills Portal, containing free, age-appropriate lessons from the technology and education sectors that users can access and use at their own pace
Show how broadband is relevant:
- Public funding for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to support public-private partnerships
- Private and non-profit partnerships in national outreach and awareness campaigns
- Targeted support for seniors
Make broadband more affordable:
- Expand to include broadband in two FCC programs that currently help make voice telephone service more affordable, known as Lifeline and Link-Up
- Consider use of spectrum for a free or very low cost wireless broadband service
Improve focus on measurement, best practices and state and local initiatives:
- Use remaining Broadband Data Improvement Act (BDIA) funds to enhance state and local broadband initiatives and planning
- Augment this with increased focus on evaluation and assessment of all adoption programs
- Creation of a Best Practices Clearinghouse for practitioners to share lessons on how to improve broadband access, adoption and utilization

Waldman Appointed by FCC to Explore Knight Commission Recommendations

KnightComm — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:16:53 +0000

Steven Waldman

The FCC announced it is responding to the calls by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy for “new thinking and aggressive action” by appointing Steven Waldman, an online pioneer and journalist, to explore the information needs of communities and “promote a vibrant media landscape.”

In a press release, the FCC quotes the Knight Commission’s Report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, announcing the appointment of Waldman “to lead an agency-wide initiative to assess the state of media in these challenging economic times and make recommendations designed to ensure a vibrant media landscape.” According to the press release, Waldman will join the Office of Strategic Planning and serve as Senior Advisor to Chairman Julius Genachowski, and “work with the relevant FCC bureaus and lead an open, fact-finding process to craft recommendations to meet the traditional goals of serving the public interest and making sure that all Americans receive the information, educational content, and news they seek”. Read more: FCC Press Release.

Get everyone in U.S. online, panel says

KnightComm — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:24:45 +0000

Source: Associated Press

Get everyone in U.S. online, panel says

Free flow of information ‘vital to the healthy functioning of communities’

By David Bauder
Associated Press
Friday, October 2, 2009

NEW YORK – The nation needs to give the same urgency to making sure all Americans have broadband access as the Eisenhower administration did in building an interstate highway system a half-century ago, a report released Friday concluded.

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy expressed worry about whether the news industry’s financial woes will make for a less educated citizenry and considered whether the government should prop up independent journalists.

The commission includes two former FCC chairmen, newspaper publishers, a top Google executive, the NAACP president and a former CNN president. It concluded that a free flow of information “is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health,” and that it’s time for leaders to give it a higher priority.

…

Read Full article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33141183/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

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

Peter Keefer — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:06:45 +0000

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 information is “being met unequally, community by community.” The elaborately named Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy raises the specter of two Americas — one wired, the other not so much.

Citing estimates that more than one-third of the country has no broadband connection to the Internet, “that’s a hell of a lot of Americans who don’t have access to the way we’re communicating,” says Alberto Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation, which commissioned the year-long study with the Aspen Institute. “When an urban kid who wants a job at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart has to apply online, if you don’t have digital access, you can’t apply.”

The panel, co-chaired by former solicitor general Theodore Olson and Google Vice President Marissa Mayer, pays tribute to the importance of newspapers as “the primary source of fair, accurate and independent news” in many cities. But the report pointedly fails to offer a strategy for survival, saying “the challenge is not to preserve any particular medium or any individual business.” Instead, it focuses on promoting “the traditional public service functions of journalism,” in whatever form.

Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute and a former Time managing editor, says the report’s focus is “not how do you save dying metropolitan newspapers. There’s a wariness to assume that the old institutions should be preserved just for their own sake.” He says the challenge is “coming up with a way that people who provide good and relevant information can pay their mortgage and put food on their table.”

Ibargüen, a former Miami Herald publisher, calls the plight of newspapers “a terrible reality to face. But the truth is we’ve always known that the First Amendment ensures freedom of speech and the press, but doesn’t guarantee your business.”

The business is already faltering. The report cites an estimate that 14,000 newspaper journalists have lost their jobs in the past nine years — roughly 25 percent of the workforce. The panel says nonprofit organizations can fill part of the gap, as can citizen journalists — using text, audio and video — by collaborating with full-time journalists. But the report is short on specifics, and does not suggest public subsidies for newspapers, as some members of Congress have proposed.

Google’s Mayer said newspapers need new business models, “but it’s clear the solution isn’t coming fast enough, so we need acceleration and people trying new things.” She pointed to such revenue sources as Google AdSense, which she says has funneled $5 billion a year to publishers by automatically serving up online text ads — a story on dog grooming would fetch a display for local outlets — to match a site’s content.

The Knight study is critical of public broadcasting, saying it needs to become “more local, more inclusive and more interactive.” To accomplish this, “the government as well as private sector donors should condition their support of public media on its reform.” What these operations need to do, Ibargüen said, “is figure out how you include the public in the broadcasting. They really do come out of the tradition of I write, you read.”

The commission’s mandate is so broad that its members embraced goals that few would quarrel with but that would require substantial largess in lean times. The report is filled with lofty-sounding goals: “Strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage with information.” “Increase support for public service media aimed at meeting community information needs.” “Increase the role of higher education, community and nonprofit institutions as hubs of journalistic activity.”

But it is short on detailed prescriptions of how to get there or who will pick up the tab. Toward that end, the report will be presented, during panel discussions at the Newseum, to such notables as Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; Aneesh Chopra, the Obama administration’s chief technology officer; Ernest J. Wilson III, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and Vivian Schiller, National Public Radio’s chief executive.

The report’s most sweeping finding is that there is a “broadband gap,” a “literacy gap” and a “participation gap” that falls heavily on younger, poorer and more rural Americans. “These threaten to create a two-tiered society with limited democratic possibilities for too many individuals and communities,” it says.

Isaacson sees a strong government role in providing broadband. “Nations that will succeed in the 21st century,” he says, “are those in which citizenry has access to the free flow of information.

It’s an important economic investment to make sure more than just a slice of our society is connected in the information age . . . just like it’s a good investment to have a public school system.”