Civic Leaders Consider How to Meet Community Information Needs

The League of Women Voters took up the Knight Commission’s challenge to help meet the information needs of America’s communities during a workshop at its 2010 convention in Atlanta last month.  The session, entitled “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy and Citizen Participation in the Digital Age,” provided an opportunity for LWV members to explore what role the national and local LWV organizations can play to bring about healthier, more informed communities.

The Knight Commission report’s Appendix I — Taking Stock: Are You a Healthy Information Community? — provided the framework for the group exercise at the workshop.

Following a welcome by LWVUS National President Mary G. Wilson, Charlie Firestone, executive director of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, kicked-off the workshop with an overview of the Knight Commission’s findings and recommendations. A panel discussion and group exercise followed.

Other experts featured at the workshop included Leonard Witt, director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University; Jim Walls, former head of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigative team who now runs Atlanta Unfiltered, his own online investigative blog; and  Steven Clift, founder of E-Democracy.org, whose presentation focused on information needs to support open democracy and “Sunshine 2.0.”

Lenn Witt posted a video interview with Charlie following the workshop (”Firestone: Healthy Communities Need High Quality Information“)  in which Charlie points out the importance of engaging community-focused organizations like the League of Women Voters  in a broad, sustained effort to bring communities together around the issue of information health in the same way that community leadership has coalesced around urban renewal, education and other critical issues.