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The Case for Open Data in Public Broadcasting

Posted by NewAmerica.net Blog Posts on Apr 19, 2010 in Public Service Media, Spotlight

History suggests that independent private sector providers of information such as Nielsen and Arbitron will develop over time to give a finer grained understanding of such measures of impact. That said, the measures of impact required are more measures of the “public good” that such media is generating rather than advertising value which is often the priority of private measurement companies focused on private sector advertiser driven media. In a world where the audience is sliced ever smaller across a larger and larger set of channels measures of impact such private companies will work to generate will be validity in measures of demographic slices rather than measures of of community reach and engagement.

New report examines public library’s growing role as online civic hub

Posted by Knight Digital Media Center All-Site Feed on Apr 05, 2010 in Civic Engagement, Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Spotlight

A new report in the US IMPACT series of studies, How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at US Libraries, examines in detail how libraries are helping people meet a variety of online needs. It provides particularly intriguing insight into who’s using library internet to engage with community life, and how they’re doing it. Keeping up with the news is a big part of that picture…

How Fast is Your Internet? Take the Test and Find Out

Posted by Amy Garmer on Mar 19, 2010 in Spotlight, Universal Broadband

How fast is your home broadband connection? Is it slower than you expect? Are you really getting the speed that your Internet service provider advertises? How does the broadband service in your community compare to other communities around the country?
There’s a new tool available at www.broadband.gov designed to help consumers get information to answer these questions. According to Ars Technica, 150,000 [...]

How ‘healthy’ is Scranton’s news and information system?

Posted by NewAmerica.net Blog Posts on Mar 12, 2010 in Civic Engagement, Local Journalism, Public Service Media, Spotlight

Scranton, PA – One of the tests for an informed public advanced by the Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy is: Does the community have at least one high-quality online hub? Until 2009, the newspaper of record here avoided the drastic cuts already underway or completed in other metro area, and each of the three major commercial television networks aired local news.

Is Your Community a Healthy Information Community?

Posted by KnightComm on Feb 24, 2010 in Spotlight

No one has developed a system for scientifically measuring the quality of a local community’s information environment although, following the release of the Knight Commission report, efforts to do so are now underway. But communities can begin to take stock of their information environments by considering the following eight features that the Knight Commission report [...]

News Leadership 3.0 — Partnering with libraries, “natural sites of media literacy”

Posted by Knight Digital Media Center All-Site Feed on Feb 16, 2010 in Digital Literacy, Local Journalism, Spotlight

Libraries and news organizations have much in common. They both seek to keep people informed, and they both have a long history of providing civic information. Thus, they may be well positioned to support each others’ evolution—as well as healthier communities.
By Amy Gahran
Like news organizations, libraries have been challenged by the proliferation of digital [...]

Recommendation 11

Posted by KnightComm on Oct 02, 2009 in Local Journalism, Spotlight

Expand local media initiatives to reflect the entire reality of the communities they represent. Media institutions, old and new, will inevitably continue to be major players in the information networks serving local communities. As democratic institutions, they can serve their communities most effectively, however, if they reflect and help give voice to all segments of the public in the way news is gathered, analyzed, and shared.

Recommendation 1

Posted by KnightComm on Oct 02, 2009 in Local Journalism, Spotlight

Direct media policy toward innovation, competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism. Throughout American history, the main source of journalism has been private enterprise. The Commission does recommend below that the United States intensify its commitment to public media.

Recommendation 3

Posted by KnightComm on Oct 02, 2009 in Civic Engagement, Local Journalism, Public Service Media, Spotlight

Increase the role of higher education, community and nonprofit institutions as hubs of journalistic activity and other information-sharing for local communities. Nonprofit institutions are reservoirs of expertise. Local community organizations, such as community development organizations, churches, fraternal organizations, and chambers of commerce, are critical in the transmission of information.

Video: Learn about KnightComm

Posted by Amy Garmer on Oct 02, 2009 in Spotlight

Recommendation 2

Posted by KnightComm on Oct 02, 2009 in Local Journalism, Public Service Media, Spotlight

Increase support for public service media aimed at meeting community information needs. Like private media, public broadcasting in the United States has a mixed history of providing local news and information. On the one hand, a 2007 Roper opinion poll found that nearly half of all Americans trust the Public Broadcasting Service “a great deal,” higher than the numbers rating commercial television and newspapers.