As the Harrington School’s founding director, Hobbs says her goal is to create “a school of national distinction” that emphasizes digital and media literacy, a global perspective on media and communication, and innovative teaching and learning. The school brings together previously separate programs in communication, journalism, public relations, and film/media with writing and rhetoric and library and information studies.

The Providence Journal published an op-ed by Hobbs the day before she formally assumed her new position, (“Folks need help with information overload,” December 31, 2011 print edition, B7; searchable in ProJo’s eEdition Back Issues). The article raises several key issues relative to digital media and education that suggest the need to think differently, and more broadly, about the interplay of technical, analytical and social skills that are at the core of digital literacy. Citing the findings of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, Hobbs makes a strong case for prioritizing investments in community-based programs and educational curricula that teach the digital and media literacy skills required to thrive in the digital age.

“The Internet is quickly becoming the critical gateway for accessing jobs, education, healthcare, government services and civic participation, yet a disturbing number of Americans lack broadband access or the basic skills in how to use it,” noted Hobbs. “But digital literacy is not as simple as giving people access to a broadband hookup. As the nonpartisan Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy found, digital literacy is actually a constellation of life skills that are necessary for full participation in our media-saturated, information-rich society.”

What are these life skills that are encompassed by digital literacy? They include the abilities to access, analyze and evaluate, create, reflect and act. In her ProJo op-ed, Hobbs lists the following capabilities:

• the ability to analyze messages in a variety of forms, including identification of the author, purpose and point of view of the message;
• the ability to evaluate the quality and credibility of content in a message (e.g., distinguishing between “a marketing ploy for nutritional supplements and solid information based on scientific evidence” or quality content and junk journalism);
• the knowledge of and ability to use powerful search strategies;
• the development of multimedia creation skills;
• the ability to use the Internet to connect with others with shared interests;the ability to reflect on one’s own online conduct and one’s online social responsibilities;
• the ability to use the power of communication as a tool for advocacy;
• an understanding of copyright;
• the ability to apply social responsibility and ethical principles to communication behavior;
• the ability to work collaboratively to solve problems in the civic sphere, which will require many of the other capabilities listed above.

Hobbs envisions a “community education movement” that is embraced by all stakeholders in the community:

What is needed now is a clear and compelling vision of the specific types of instructional practices that can best support the development of these new competencies among all Americans. We need programs to help bring these new forms of learning to educators at all levels. We all have skin in the game when it comes to the vitality of our communities, which is why digital and media literacy needs to be a community education movement, embraced by all stakeholders.

To learn more about the essential competencies of digital and media literacy, and steps that communities can take to strengthen digital citizenship and make digital and media education part of mainstream education in the United States, see Hobbs’ white paper, Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, published by The Aspen Institute Communication and Society Program.

Related posts:

1. Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action
2. It’s Time for a National Commitment to Digital Literacy
3. Media Literacy Starts with Everyone, Report Says

Assessing Community Information Needs: A Practical Guide is a guide for adopting civic innovation strategies to spur the development of news and information environments that address real community needs.  Civic leaders, elected officials, motivated citizens, community-based organizations and others can use this guide to understand how to integrate useful practices for assessing and building engaged, informed communities—communities with the civic capacity necessary to deal successfully with today’s many economic, social, environmental and political challenges. (Download PDF or Read Online)

*Watch related Roundtable Discussion*

Author Richard C. Harwood sets forth a set of assessment strategies that go beyond merely counting the information assets that exist in the community. While high-speed broadband, news websites, social media and local online hubs are important for expanding opportunities to participate in public life, in order for these technologies to be truly transformative communities need to create a receptive environment where citizens engage more fully with the spectrum of information and knowledge providers that contribute to the health and stability of a community: schools, businesses, libraries, nonprofits, other organizations and each other.

Harwood proposes a set of nine strategies, governed by four guiding principles, to help people in a community take effective action toward improving their information ecology. The paper also includes a checklist for getting started.

Among the key elements of his nine step plan are the following:

• Engage the community early on and focus on core community needs. Being in the community and hearing people talk about their community can yield valuable insights that lead to refocusing existing efforts, creating new types of content, developing new networks of partners, and building a more useful information infrastructure.

• Actively cultivate boundary-spanning organizations and groups.  Public and commercial media, community foundations, public libraries, and local United Ways are among the groups that bring people together across dividing lines, incubate new ideas and spin them off and reflect the aspirations and concerns of the community. These intermediary organizations should play an essential role in assessing and building healthy information environments.

• Tell the community’s story of change. Told well and over time, such stories can help a community create a “can-do narrative” about its ability to tackle change and invite people to step forward.

• Ensure enough entry points for people to engage. There must be sufficient “on-ramps” for people to participate in the information environment and community life. Technological on-ramps like high-speed broadband are important, but so are a variety of cultural and social access points.

Together, Harwood’s nine strategies and four guideposts will allow communities to focus on building information environments, engaging the community and taking action on what matters most.

This paper is the eighth paper in a series of white papers focused on implementing the 15 recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The white paper series is published by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Richard Harwood is the founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation.

Related posts:

1. Roundtable on Assessing Community Information Needs
2. Assessing Community Info Ecosystem and Needs in Southern Vermont
3. Updated: Measuring the Information Health of American Cities

Click to download PDF

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 policy and regulations can be more “in sync with the information needs of communities and the fluid nature of modern local media markets.” The central issue at hand, the report states, is the shortage of “local, professional, accountability reporting”.

The report early on explains the origins of the study and its relationship to the challenges posed by the Knight Commission’s Informing Communities report:

That sense of the vital link between informed citizens and a healthy democracy is why civic and media leaders grew alarmed a few years ago when the digital revolution began undercutting traditional media business models, leading to massive layoffs of journalists at newspapers, newsmagazines, and TV stations. Since then, experts in the media and information technology spheres have been debating whether the media is fulfilling the crucial role envisioned for it by the Founders. In 2008 and 2009, a group that was both bipartisan (Republicans and Democrats) and bi-generational (“new media” and “old media”) studied this issue at the behest of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The group, the Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy…posed a bipartisan challenge to the FCC, whose policies often affect the information health of communities. The chairman responded in December 2009 by initiating an effort at the FCC to answer two questions: 1) are citizens and communities getting the news, information, and reporting they want and need? and 2) is public policy in sync with the nature of modern media markets, especially when it comes to encouraging innovation and advancing local public interest goals?

The Knight Commission’s series of white papers has been moving into action the recommendations of Informing Communities. Later this month a white paper by Michael Fancher will offer actionable steps on the issue of local journalism and community information needs.

Read: The Information Needs of Communities: The changing media landscape in a broadband age

Related posts:

1. Waldman Appointed by FCC to Explore Knight Commission Recommendations
2. Knight Commission Report Presented to CPB Board
3. Knight, Local Foundations Partner on Community Information Needs

The Toolkit derives from the checklist appearing in Appendix I of Informing Communities, and has been developed under the leadership of Mayur Patel of the Knight Foundation in partnership with the Monitor Institute and the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The unveiling of the Community Information Toolkit is a major breakthrough in the implementation of the recommendations of the Knight Commission, as it provides a competent means to assess a community based on one of the Commission’s core premises–that information is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets and good schools. Of course, this is only Version 1.0, and the Knight Foundation is encouraging communities to share their experiences to help innovate a future version 2.0. To begin, go to www.infotoolkit.org. Or you can download the toolkit as a PDF here.

Mayur Patel introduces the Community Information Toolkit at the Media Learning Seminar:

Community Information Toolkit from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, also discusses it:

Lee Rainie, of Pew, on Community Information Toolkit from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

Related posts:

1. Free Webinar: Knight Foundation’s New Community Information Toolkit
2. Assessing the Flow of Local News and Information
3. Assessing Community Information Needs: A Practical Guide

“Universal Broadband: Targeting Investments to Deliver Broadband Services to All Americans,” (download here) a new policy paper by Blair Levin, proposes a number of steps to achieve these goals. First, the paper outlines the steps necessary to make basic broadband available to all Americans, regardless of location. As an initial matter, the paper proposes setting a target of assuring that all Americans have access to a network capable of delivering 4 Mbps actual download speed and 1 Mbps actual upload speed. To do so requires a fund of approximately $10 billion over 10 years. This money can be obtained by repurposing existing money from the Universal Service Fund, which is no longer efficiently serving the goal of connecting Americans to the universal communications medium.

In the paper’s first major initiative, Levin recommends a ten-year transition to shift over $15 billion of inefficient USF expenditures to a more efficient system that allows for experimentation and is designed to address today’s needs. To assure deployment and operation of broadband networks everywhere, the government should

• Create a Connect America Fund to support the provision of affordable broadband and voice specifically to those areas where, without such support, broadband would not be available.

• Create a Mobility Fund to ensure no states are lagging significantly behind the national average for broadband wireless coverage; and

• Remove barriers to local government funding of broadband networks.

The paper’s second major initiative makes a number of recommendations to increase adoption of broad¬band by low-income Americans and other non-adopter communities. Cost is the biggest factor, but it is not the only factor. Digital literacy and relevance also loom large as factors affecting adoption. Government should

• Expand, and eventually transform, the current Lifeline and Link-Up programs from subsidizing voice services to making broadband affordable to low-income individuals.

• Form partnerships with non-profit agencies to address relevance barriers with targeted programs.

• Create a National Digital Literacy Corps to teach digital literacy skills and enable private sector programs addressed at breaking adoption barriers.

• Convene a working group to address adoption by persons with disabilities, a key non-adopter community

• Experiment, through a competition, to try new techniques to drive adoption.

In addition, the paper suggests that to drive both deployment and adoption, the country needs to improve broadband-related funding to community anchor institutions. This can be done by facilitating demand aggregation for public sector broadband facilities, such as health care facilities, and by enabling partnerships that focus on serving the needs of institutions that require more complex networks. The paper also recommends a number of steps to improve the use of broadband for economic development efforts, including competitions to improve broadband for economic development purposes and the creation of Model Communities for testing next-generation, ultra-high speed broadband on military bases and in designated economic enterprise zones.

Download: Universal Broadband: Targeting Investments to Deliver Broadband Services to All Americans

Related posts:

1. Changing Hearts and Minds on Universal Broadband
2. FCC Takes Steps to Implement National Broadband Plan
3. Levin Presentation: “Simple Answers to Democratize Knowledge Exchange”

These questions lie at the heart of Information Stories, a riveting new series of twelve three-to-five minute videos that show how people can overcome the powerlessness caused by living in an information vacuum.  Combining the power of video storytelling with raw personal experience and the strong will to overcome obstacles, Information Stories highlights the critical importance of information to the healthy functioning of communities and the ability of ordinary Americans to live happy and healthy lives.

But make no mistake: there is nothing ordinary about the extraordinary people at the center of these stories, or the efforts they have made to improve the quality of information–and the quality of life–in their communities.

For example, we meet Loris Ann Taylor, Arizona-based executive director of Native Public Media, who explains how she went from growing up on a reservation that relied on a town crier to give the news to working, as an adult, to proliferate broadband availability and public radio stations throughout Indian country. See her video here:

The Information Stories series was conceived by law professor Peter Shane, who served as executive director of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, and filmmaker Liv Gjestvang. Professor Shane wanted to find a way to make the Knight Commission issues more compelling and concrete for the everyday public.

“The Commission explained why ‘second-class information citizenship is looming’ for many Americans,” said Professor Shane. “I hoped to motivate activists around the country to pay attention to their local information ecologies.  I want them to ask whether everyone in their communities gets the information they require to meet both their personal and civic needs.” (Peter gives a great overview of the entire Information Stories project in his Huffington Post blog announcing the launch of the series and website, Digital Stories Dramatize Information’s Role in the Lives of People and Communities.)

Other storytellers we meet are:

• Martin Macias, Jr., a young Latino radio reporter and organizer from Chicago, who explains how he learned what it takes to really hear his own community;

• Maureen Mann, a New Hampshire state legislator who tells how her move to a media-poor part of the state led her to create an online newspaper that turned neighbors into journalists;

• Brenda Jo Brueggeman, a “hard-of-hearing” writer and professor of English, who explains how she came to understand the struggle of deaf people to be part of the flow of information around them – and the life-and-death stakes of being excluded; and

• Joshua Chisholm, a faith-based community organizer from Camden, New Jersey, who explains how he works to help people overcome the sense of powerlessness that arises when they live “in an information vacuum” generated by people and institutions that benefit from the public’s “lack of understanding.”

These Information Stories expose personal experiences with information deficits, obstacles to the free flow and exchange of information and other hurdles that are all too common in communities across America today.  The good news, as each of the Information Stories shows, is that motivated, committed citizens can use a broad array of relationships, resources, tools and technologies to create positive and lasting change in their information environments and communities.

The videos are available on the Information Stories website at http://informationstories.org and on the InfoStories Channel on YouTube. Information Stories was produced with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The storytellers attended a July 2010 Digital Storytelling Workshop at Ohio State University where they learned how to produce their narratives.

The Information Stories website includes both captioned and non-captioned versions of the individual stories. DVDs containing both the individual stories and the “full reel” version of the documentary series can be ordered from the website. Perhaps most importantly, the site links to resources that explain how anyone can produce his or her own “information story” and encourages feedback on the site by viewers to explain how they used Information Stories in their local communities.

Information Stories does a brilliant job of driving home the closing message of the Knight Commission’s Informing Communities report: “The ‘information issue’ is everyone’s issue.”

Related posts:

1. New America Foundation: Info Ecosystems in Five U.S. Communities
2. Personal Stories of Broadband Highlight Digital Inclusion Summit
3. News Leadership 3.0 — Community info building blocks: What do you already have?

Barbara Cochran is the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.  Her perspectives are informed by a journalism career spanning nearly 30 years that has included leadership positions in public and commercial newsrooms, covering print, radio and television news.

Rethinking Public Media makes the case for increasing government, private and philanthropic funding of public service media predicated upon reforms in the areas of local programming, diversity, and interactivity. In the white paper, Cochran calls on public media organizations to

• develop innovative models for delivering more local news coverage and, collectively, to invest $100 million to add 1,000 public media reporters to boost local coverage;
• seek new ways of engaging diverse and traditionally underserved communities such as youth and minorities by expanding the diversity of news and information staff at both the national and local levels, partnering with journalism schools to engage young people, and supporting the expansion of a Public Media Corps to promote digital literacy in underserved communities; and
• invest in efforts to improve digital delivery, including the development of meaningful metrics, and seeks ways to connect public media content through a shared digital platform.

Cochran points out that this plan for more local, more inclusive, more interactive public service media can only be completed with the transformation of the structural and funding models that have governed much of public media since its creation. Specifically, Rethinking Public Media calls on Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, public media entities, philanthropic organizations and others to:

• restructure the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as the Corporation for Public Media, and break down barriers between television and radio by considering a new structure based on strengths in types of content and passing legislation for reallocating federal funds accordingly;
• allow public media entities to operate with greater efficiencies by making it easier for stations to consolidate and merge;
• improve community governance structures of public media licensees and increase digital experience among board members;
• increase congressional support through a special appropriation to enable public media to offer content more broadly on digital platforms as key community anchor institutions under the national broadband plan, and restore reauthorization;
• encourage investment from government, foundations and corporations;
• seek foundation partners to jump-start the process and engage community foundations to support fulfillment of community information needs; and
• keep digital content free.

“Above all, public media leaders need to embrace a new definition that is more local, more inclusive and more interactive and become more involved in the development of the nation’s broadband policy, guaranteeing access, reducing costs of streaming and other technology and overcoming copyright roadblocks” noted Cochran in the report. “Only public media leaders can convince government and philanthropic supporters that they have a new vision worthy of their investment.”

Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive is the third policy paper released by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation aimed at implementing the 15 recommendations by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (See previous papers on Digital and Media Literacy and Universal Broadband). The Commission released its landmark report, Informing Communities, last year to help promote healthy informed communities across the country.

Rethinking Public Media:
More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive

A White Paper by Barbara Cochran

Download PDF | View on Scribd

Table of Contents
From Report to Action
Executive Summary

Knight Commission Recommendation and Analysis
Information Needs of Communities: A Case Study
Models for Transformation
The Opportunity
The Challenge
More Local | More Inclusive | More Interactive
Structure | Funding
Who Should Do What
Conclusion
Endnotes

Appendix
About the Author
About the Communications and Society Program

Related posts:

1. CJR Story: “Public Media: ‘More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive’”
2. ‘Rethinking Public Media’ Author Explains Importance of Public Media on MSNBC
3. Cochran: Local Public Broadcasters Shouldn’t Lose Funding Because of Problems at NPR

As part of its work on the development of healthy, informed communities, MPI has conducted a series of five assessments of local media ecosystems which are now published as Information Community Case Studies. Each draws heavily on the Knight Commission Report’s three important elements and indicators of a community’s information health:

• the availability of relevant and credible information
• the capacity of individuals to engage with information, and
• the individual engagement with information and the public life of the community

We are pleased to present all five studies here. How does your community compare? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Photo credit: zman z28/Flickr

Information Community Case Study:
Minneapolis-St. Paul

Adapting business models to digitalized information demand

Download (PDF)

Photo Credit: D.C. Convention and Tourism Corporation

Information Community Case Study:
Washington, D.C.

Addressing information divides with diverse approaches

Read Online

Photo credit: Daniel Case/Wikimedia Commons

Information Community Case Study:
Scranton

An industrial city with a media ecosystem yet to take advantage of digital opportunities

Download (PDF)

Photo credit: Cacaphony/Wikimedia Commons

Information Community Case Study:
Seattle

Seattle: A digital community still in transition

Download (PDF)

Photo credit: Jake Kitchener/Flickr

Information Community Case Study:
The Research Triangle, N.C.

A region of locally owned media outlets and entrepreneurs on the verge

Download (PDF)

.

Related posts:

1. New America Foundation Names Tom Glaisyer its Knight Media Policy Fellow
2. FOCAS10: News Cities: The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities
3. Information Stories tell of personal stakes in healthy info communities

Photo Credit: gennaro cicalese.it on Flickr

(New case studies are added on an ongoing basis — the latest on Sept. 16: Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN; The Research Triangle, NC, Philadelphia, PA.  Have we missed any? Please let us know!)

Since the release of the report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, we’ve seen efforts in communities across the country to take stock of their unique information needs and assets. One of the great things about these case studies is that they are bringing a discussion that has raged largely in professional and academic circles at the national level into the mainstream of public conversation at the community level.

In some cases, the Knight Commission’s call to action inspired the community assessments as part of the process of addressing the overall health of the community. In others, the inquiries are part of the broader movement concerned with the future of media and journalism at a time when both local and national media systems are undergoing massive restructuring. Regardless of origin, these case studies are available to other communities as potential models for engaging in similar assessments toward creating informed communities, addressing community affairs and pursuing common goals.

Each community has a unique blend of interconnected networks of people, organizations, institutions, technological infrastructure, content, habits and values that make up its information ecosystem. Taking stock of the information resources in your community and identifying what information resources the community needs to remain strong, healthy and dynamic are the first steps toward building a healthy, informed community.

This is the essence of the Knight Commission’s Recommendation #5: develop systematic quality measures of community information ecologies, and study how they affect social outcomes.

The problem at the moment is a lack of good tools for communities to assess the quality of local information ecologies. The Commission noted:

There are no widely accepted indices for comparing different communities’ ecologies or determining whether information flow within a particular community is improving or degrading. Communities need measure of both kinds. If activists, policy makers, and the general public had more concrete ways of describing, measuring and comparing the systems of community news and information flow, it would be much easier to mobilize public interest around community information needs.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which funded the Knight Commission and continues to sponsor its ongoing work to implement the 15 Commission recommendations, is currently at work to develop better tools to measure the information health of communities. (As a precursor to Knight’s current work, see Esther Thorson & Eric Newton’s paper, “Indexing Community Information Needs in a Democracy,” which contains a checklist outlining some basic requirements for community information needs.) The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, which provided the institutional home of the Knight Commission, has commissioned a series of white papers on various aspects of  building healthy information communities. (The first of these will be released on September 29th with the others following through the end of the year.) In the meantime, KnightComm.org is collecting information about and links to community information case studies and updating the list here.

Our aim is to use crowd sourcing and collaborative methods to tease out a template that will be a useful resource for hosting public conversations and community information summits and assessing the information resources available. Because this is only a starting point, we need your help to grow this list. Post information and links about community information assessments in the comments section below, or send me an email at garmer@aspeninstitute.org with documents, links or  other resources for assessing community information resources and I’ll add the information.

The Community Information Ecosystem Assessments list below highlights published case studies of projects that have inventoried all or part of the information and media-related resources that exist in the community.

Additionally, there is a growing number of local and regional conversations about strengthening  the information environment and creating more engaged communities, such as those convened by Journalism That Matters in Seattle and Detroit. These convenings–billed as summits, conferences, “unconferences”,  gatherings, conversations or other titles–can be invaluable to the understanding of the community’s information ecosystem and lay the groundwork for more rigorous, detailed case studies. Thus, I’ve started a second list below of Community Information Summits and Conversations.

This is most certainly a work in progress, not a finished product. Neither list is intended to be exhaustive and I’m sure there are many endeavors which we’ve missed that deserve to be included. This is why collaborative technologies and crowd sourcing techniques are so important–please join our effort to build up this database of information!

Take a look at what others are doing in their communities to mobilize public interest in creating more informed communities. Share with us what’s happening in your own community. And join us in highlighting new and ongoing projects that measure and improve the information health of America’s communities.
Community Information Ecosystem Assessments (by state  or district)

District of Columbia | Washington
An Information Community Case Study: Washington, D.C.
Kristine Gloria and Kara Hadge, New America Foundation’s Media Policy Initiative, August 5, 2010.
A capital city of international importance, Washington, D.C. has a vibrant local media scene supported by the public and private sectors, but an unequal distribution of information that tracks along persistent racial and socioeconomic stratifications that have long shaped life in the District.

Illinois | Chicago
The NEW News 2010
Community Media Workshop for the Chicago Community Trust, August 2010.
The second annual survey of the Chicago area’s online news ecosystem. [See also the June 2009 survey, The New News: Journalism We Want and Need].

Maryland | Baltimore
How News Happens: A Study of the News Ecosystem of One American City
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, January 11, 2010.
The study suggests that while the news landscape has rapidly expanded, most of what the public learns is still overwhelmingly driven by traditional media—particularly newspapers.

Minnesota | Minneapolis-St. Paul
An Information Community Case Study: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Daniel Amzallag and Amalia Deloney, New America Foundation’s Media Policy Initiative, September 2, 2010.
The demand for quality journalism in the Twin Cities remains high, but many local media outlets struggle to deliver it sustainably. The digital age has presented significant challenges to a media landscape centered around a print format; however it also presents new opportunities.

North Carolina | The Research Triangle
An Information Community Case Study: The Research Triangle, North Carolina
Fiona Morgan and Allie Perez, New America Foundation’s Media Policy Initiative, September 16, 2010.
If it can harness its local talent, channel creative civic energy, straighten out policies hindering public media and extend the resources available to traditional media outlets outside the traditional newsroom, the Triangle is poised to develop a media ecology strong in its diversity.

Oregon | Portland
City of Portland Social Media Conversation Audit
Jamie Beckland, White Horse (digital marketing agency), Portland, Oregon, December 2009.
Study finds local blogs beating legacy media on substantive policy discussions.

Pennsylvania | Philadelphia
Exploring a Networked Journalism Collaborative in Philadelphia
Jan Schaeffer, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, April 2010.
The city is awash in media and technological assets that can pioneer a new Golden Era of Journalism.

Toward a Healthy Media Ecosystem for Philadelphia
Joshua Breitbart, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, May 25, 2010.
This paper identifies new media assets in the Philadelphia ecosystem that were ommitted in the J-Lab report, Exploring a Networked Journalism Collaborative in Philadelphia. It includes a critique of the earlier study’s starting assumptions and methodology, suggesting considerations for future comprehensive assessments of community information ecosystems.

Related posts:

1. New America Foundation: Info Ecosystems in Five U.S. Communities
2. The Community Information Toolkit, Version 1.0
3. Assessing Community Information Needs: A Practical Guide

Room on the Dial: Group Wants Community Radio in Scranton

by Jessica Durkin, Sustaining Media in the Digital Age blog, New America Foundation, originally posted August 21, 2010

Logo for WFTE 90.3 FM: People's Radio for the Scranton Area

Scranton, Pa. — The FCC has granted Scranton a grassroots opportunity.

Armed with a temporary radio construction permit and guided by the Prometheus Radio Project, local non-profit organization Community Radio Collective, Inc. plans to launch full-power FM station WFTE 90.3 and they have five months to do it.

Community Radio Collective has begun a capital campaign to raise $15,000 to be on the air by midnight Feb. 10, 2011, when its construction permit expires. The money will pay for a 60-foot tower to be built 10 miles away in Mount Cobb, creating an FM signal strong enough to reach the city and its suburbs clearly—that is, an area of about 200,000 people.

MPI is studying Scranton’s news and information landscape and has published findings in a case study. The study is based on the recommendations outlined in the Knight Commission’s “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age” report.

Pointing to Knight Commission ideals, a community radio station could empower citizen participation in self-governance, ensure a local community information hub and expand individuals’ information capacity.

Studying Scranton, we found that while area residents have standard media choices, there is little diversity in media ownership and journalist layoffs have precipitated insufficient community coverage.

Those findings were confirmed Wednesday night by the 25 people who turned out for a discussion, “Scranton’s media problems and potential solutions,” hosted by WFTE founder Alex Allen and Community Radio Collective Chairman Jake Rosen. When asked what they want in local radio, the 25 participants said that they are looking for an antidote to the “sameness” of corporate radio music lists and a counterpoint to conservative talk shows.

Among their expectations: airspace for citizen journalism, ethnic communities, local progressive talk, regional bands and artists and radio theater. Many specifically asked to hear Democracy Now, a popular syndicated program hosted by Amy Goodman. Organizers said that show has pledged a free broadcast feed for one year to the station upon launch.

If WFTE 90.3 is successful, the volunteer- and donation-supported radio station will be a media outlet responsive to listeners and aimed at countering a corporate media environment that, the founders believe, is often disconnected from its audience.

As described by WFTE, the mission is to bring a “sorely needed” progressive movement to Northeast Pennsylvania.

“WFTE shall aim to create and provide high quality, innovative and community-oriented programming serving communities, information, and ideas that are ignored, suppressed, overlooked, or underserved by the mainstream media,” according to WFTE press materials.

About 30 radio stations across the region can be picked up on the dial in Scranton, and nine of those stations are based in or near the city. Times-Shamrock Communications, publisher of the Scranton Times-Tribune, owns three commercial radio stations that are broadcast to the region, operated by the company’s Shamrock Communications division.

Should WFTE raise the money it needs to go on air, it will join WVIA 89.9 FM, the region’s National Public Radio affiliate, the University of Scranton’s WUSR 99.5 FM, plus a number of Christian-themed stations on the noncommercial spectrum.

Beyond the station tower, a second campaign will seek to raise an additional $40,000 for operations and studio space in Scranton.

In October 2007, the Federal Communications Commission opened a one-week window for nonprofits to apply for noncommercial educational (NCE) radio station permits. WFTE was granted the radio construction permit through that offer.

An exact count of community radio stations in the country is difficult to obtain since “community radio” is a loose categorization that can include low and high power FM, noncommercial, and public radio, but the industry trade group National Federation of Community Broadcasters counts more than 200 members.

Prometheus Radio is also assisting the start-up Williamsport Community Radio WXPI 88.5 FM in Williamsport, Pa., in the north-central part of the state. According to its website, Prometheus has “supported hundreds of community organizations to apply for licenses and build their stations, touring the country to reach out to community groups and spread the word about LPFM. Prometheus organized 11 ‘radio barnraisings,’ where hundreds of volunteers gather to build a radio station in three days. These radio barnraisings have helped groups build their base while training a new generation of media organizers across the country.”

Related posts:

1. How ‘healthy’ is Scranton’s news and information system?
2. New America Foundation: Info Ecosystems in Five U.S. Communities
3. Assessing Community Info Ecosystem and Needs in Southern Vermont

Mike Fancher

As part of the ongoing work to promote the Knight Commission’s vision for healthy, informed communities, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program has commissioned a series of policy papers to detail specific steps for implementing the Commission’s 15 recommendations. The research and writing of these papers is now underway, with publication slated for the fall.

We recently invited a small group of forward-thinking journalists, news entrepreneurs, analysts and community leaders to discuss and debate specific proposals for promoting healthy news and information flows at the local level. The half-day meeting centered around a “critique” of the first draft of a white paper on local journalism (recommendation 1) written by Mike Fancher, who for 20 years was executive editor of the Seattles Times.

Len Witt, who runs the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University and participated in our “critique” session, interviewed Mike about the work that he is doing to identify specific actions that can promote the growth of local journalism through marketplace incentives. Here’s a short excerpt of the interview.

Fancher: The themes that I’m working on are essentially experimentation, collaboration, and engagement. Experimentation – nobody knows what’s going to work. So let’s try lots of things. Collaboration – it’s in the DNA of journalists to be very competitive and independent. But in this day and age, with fewer and fewer resources and journalistic organizations, and more and more startups, we need to collaborate a lot more than we ever did in the past. And engagement is that journalism is for the public, and we need to bring the public into this conversation and let them help us create the journalism of the future.

To watch video of the full interview and read the transcript, click here.

Related posts:

1. Thierer: Thinking about the Future of Informed Communities and Journalism
2. Fancher: “American journalism is at a tipping point”
3. Re-Imagining Journalism: Local News for a Networked World

To address this urgent need, we at the National Black Programming Consortium, an organization with a 30-year track record of increasing capacity in minority communities to create and use public media, are launching the Public Media Corps, using a service core model to encourage and support healthy, hyper-local twenty-first century community information ecosystems, using public media assets and tools as a driver of demand.

“We need to tackle the challenge of connecting 93 million Americans to our broadband future,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski at the release of the National Broadband Plan. “In the 21st century, a digital divide is an opportunity divide.”

The Fellows chosen, representing a range of professional skills from experienced veteran journalists and educators to recent college graduates with training in the latest media technologies, will work to close that opportunity divide by connecting schools, museums, libraries and other important hubs in underserved communities to public media tools and assets that include technology-rich teaching curricula and materials, relevant and timely public interest content and technology training to increase the capacity of local non-profits as well as to increase the digital skill set of the community at large.

On Friday, June 25th as part of the Silverdocs Film Festival, the official launch event, a panel moderated by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and taped live to air on his public radio show, will introduce the class of 2010 and the thirteen partners in the beta phase of the project. The partners include three at-risk high schools, a community museum and neighborhood library, three community centers serving predominantly African American and Latino residents of DC, and five public broadcasting entities including WHUT Howard University Television, WETA, WEAA-FM and PBS.

And, now, introducing the 2010 inaugural class of the Public Media Corps:

Kibwe Chase-Marshall – video and digital producer and designer
T. Je’Nein Farrell – former adjunct professor, producer, videographer and director
Brennan Gerald – virtual brand and marketing consultant
Khalil Gill – illustrator, web designer and educator
Robin Hamilton – freelance writer and television reporter
Ivana Jackson – recent journalism graduate
Mike Janssen – writer and public media professional
Molly McDonnell – journalist and web designer
Gerardo I. Medrano, former researcher, curator and education specialist
Ashley Mosley – video producer and community organizer
Selina Musuta – radio producer and DJ
LaToya Peterson – blogger and new media entrepreneur
Olivia Rubagumya – journalist and human rights media programmer
Danielle Scruggs – photographer, writer and blogger
Ariel Valdez – journalist and musician with public radio experience

For more information on the project, the partners or the Fellows, please visit: www.publicmediacorps.org.

Jacquie Jones is Executive Director of the National Black Programming Consortium (NPBC) and a guest blogger for Knightcomm.org. She can be e-mailed at jacquie-AT-nbpc.tv

Related posts:

1. Senior Public Media Officials Meet to Create New Public Media Corps
2. Digital Literacy Skills Essential to Closing Broadband Gap
3. Corporation for Public Broadcasting Launches Local Journalism Initiative

Photo credit: Seattle Skyline dherrera_96 on Flickr

The following post is by Kara Hadge for New America Foundation’s Media Policy Initiative. MPI hired its first batch of fellows in Spring 2010, and its current work centers on the recently published Knight Commission Report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.

by Kara Hadge, Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age blog, New America Foundation, May 11, 2010

We’ve just published our first two information ecology case studies, which take a close look at the local conditions in Seattle and Scranton. When we started investigating these media ecosystems, we used the Knight Commission Report, “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age,” as our guide. Newspapers, television, and radio were all important to us, but so were residents’ access to education, broadband, government data, libraries, and other community institutions, as well as evidence we found that showed how citizens engaged with the information. The results were illuminating, and the two cities are an interesting contrast in showing the diverse resources available to today’s American communities.

Seattle, in particular, seemed to offer a preview of where today’s media landscape is headed. The case study covers a lot of ground, but what stood out in particular in Seattle was the role that online news start-ups have begun to play. As you may recall, Seattle went from a two-newspaper to a one-newspaper town last year, when The Seattle Post-Intelligencer became the nation’s first online-only metro daily. Even as the remaining print paper, The Seattle Times, tried to regain its footing during the transition, a number of hyperlocal, neighborhood-based online news sites were already springing up. I compared four of the blogs with SeattleTimes.com and SeattlePI.com and found some interesting trends.

With their focus on community news, Seattle’s neighborhood blogs have the potential to fill the gaps in local coverage by the city’s mainstream media outlets. And the numbers seem to back this up: When I examined the six news sites (SeattlePI.com, SeattleTimes.com, “Capitol Hill Seattle,” “West Seattle Blog,” “My Ballard,” and “Wallyhood”) for three days over a three-week period last month, the two newspaper websites devoted 11 to 12% of their news coverage to neighborhood issues, while the blogs’ coverage ranged from 81 to 97%. The blogs are devoting more space to announcements of City Council meetings and civic events relevant to their neighborhoods, and they’re covering more stories related to subjects identified by the Knight Commission as meeting community information needs (e.g, social services and education).

It’s not just what they’re covering, but how they’re discussing these subjects that merits a closer look. Let’s take a few days’ coverage on the “Capitol Hill Seattle” blog, for example. On April 21, posts featured on the homepage included news about the progress of the City Council’s streetcar proposal, City Hall’s plans for installing new green spaces in the neighborhood, an announcement for a public forum with a City Councilwoman to discuss plans for installing surveillance cameras at a local park, and four posts on government activity regarding transit and traffic concerns. There were two posts about events seeking citizen feedback in neighborhood development projects, which included a planned housing renovation in one instance and potential uses for property held by a local church in another. Another post made use of government data to create a map of designated heritage and non-heritage trees in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, as classified by the City of Seattle. Other neighborhood blogs function similarly, providing relevant information to the public while also encouraging neighborhood civic engagement offline. On an anecdotal basis, the blogs seemed to be covering subjects that were within the grasp of their resources that had not garnered much attention from the mainstream media, but to find the extent to which the blogs are really engaging in original reporting would require a deeper analysis.

That’s what’s happening on the ground in Seattle. Can you think of anything we missed? Which cities should we examine next? We’d love to get your feedback – let us know in the comments.

http://mediapolicy.newamerica.net/blogposts/2010/close_up_on_seattle_local_blogs_and_community_collaboration-31585

Related posts:

1. Study Finds Local Blogs Beating Legacy Media on Substantive Policy Discussions
2. New America Foundation: Info Ecosystems in Five U.S. Communities
3. Seattle Releases Survey of Residents’ Technology Use

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Of the Press: Models for Transforming American Journalism details the insights and forward-thinking frameworks resulting from the 2009 Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) in which over 40 leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs addressed the crisis facing journalism, highlighted by recent closings and bankruptcies of numerous traditional news outlets. The Report describes the innovations, experimental business models, and evolving philosophies that could be harnessed to preserve journalism as a critical instrument in American society. The idea to gather leaders and innovators to address the changing news marketplace was closely related to the work of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities, itself an outcome of an earlier FOCAS and which calls for ”innovation, competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism”.

Related posts:

1. Mike Fancher: Contemplating the Future of Local Journalism
2. Recommendation 1
3. Fancher: “American journalism is at a tipping point”

Re-posted with permission from Knight Digital Media Center’s News Leadership 3.0 Blog.
Community connectedness and diverse revenue streams are critical ingredients for success for nonprofit news organizations. That’s my headline the conversation at the Knight Foundation’s “Seeking Sustainability” roundtable discussion of about 50 people representing 18 nonprofit news organizations Monday in Austin.

Most of the organizations represented here are ones I have dubbed the “new traditionals” on my list of promising sites at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. These are sites that employ professional journalists to produce quality news content – whether local, statehouse or investigative. But as I listened to representatives of these organizations talk about their mission, I was struck by how different they sound from the “old traditionals” like the newspaper newsrooms where I worked.

We used to talk about serving the community. But with the advertising dollars flowing, we didn’t really depend on our communities and as a result, we didn’t always know them or reflect them effectively.

So it’s refreshing and inspiring that the leaders of these “new traditionals” see community engagement as a vital component of their future sustainability.

“Now we can build system that can thrive because of the mission thriving. The key to this, the key to sources of revenue is the creation of a community and engagement,” said Scott Lewis, CEO of Voice of San Diego. Lewis says news organizations need to think of themselves as educators, as “stewards of conversations” that support “a higher sense of learning and engagement with issues.”

“Our name and our success is based on our investigations,” Lewis said. “But we are still struggling to engage people, to talk people along on this journey with us”  by including context and background. One feature on the site, San Diego Explained, gives users the back story on news of the day.

Paul Bass, of the New Haven Independent, said community has been the core mission of the site. “We cultivated a community. We’re a journalism driven community.”

Many of these nonprofit sites have started with grant funding (the nonprofit version of venture capital it would seem.) While some sell advertising, it is not a central revenue stream of many sites. Instead, the discussion today focused on:

- Memberships on the NPR model. Lewis said Voice of San Diego has a membership renewal rate of more than 70 percent with a fairly rudimentary system.

- Sponsorships. Susan Mernit, founder of Oakland Local, says she sees sponsorships as an ongoing source of income while advertisements on the site will be primarily event-based. Bass said the Independent sells sponsorships, not ads. He pitches sponsorship as an opportunity to be associated with good journalism content.

- Events. Texas Tribune believes hosting events will be a significant part of its revenue stream, said Chairman John Thornton. (Here’s an interview about the Tribune’s revenue strategy.)

- Syndication. California Watch sells other publications rights to use its stories at very low fees, ranging from $50 to $500 depending on the size of the publication. As the organization localizes and tailors content more to a specific publication it may be able to charge more, said Mark Katches, editorial director. Voice of San Diego sells two features each week to a local television station, Lewis said.

In contrast to the pay wall debate in established media, the nonprofit leaders spoke about the need to push their content out, mostly for free, to other sites in order to raise their profiles and grow their audience and create value.

“The real value in what we do is in secondary or tertiary publishing. We distribute across networks. That is the real value. It’s the most important thing,” said Evan Smith, CEO of Texas Tribune.

Another indicator of the “new” in “new traditional” on the Web.

(This is cross posted at the RJI blog.)

Sourced from: Knight Digital Media Center All-Site Feed

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1. “Block by Block” Community News Summit Begins Today
2. Might the new web journalism model be neither for-profit nor nonprofit?
3. New Business Models for News talk