Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

Informing Communities:
Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

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Overview

The time has come for new thinking and aggressive action to ensure the information opportunities of America’s people, the information health of its communities, and the information vitality of our democracy. Information technology is changing our lives in ways that we cannot easily foresee. Critical intermediating practices—journalism perhaps most obviously—are facing challenges of economics, organization, and values. As dramatic as the impacts have been already, they are just beginning. How we react, individually and collectively, to the information challenges and opportunities now presented to us will affect the quality of our lives and the very nature of our communities. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy has created what it hopes will be a helpful framework for seizing these opportunities and providing a vision for “informed communities.” Informing Communities is the Commission’s articulation of community information needs and the critical steps necessary to meet them.

Table of Contents

Foreword | Statement by the Co-Chairs | Executive Summary

Introduction
Part I: What are the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy?
Part II: Commission Findings and Recommended Strategies
__A. Maximizing the Availability of Relevant and Credible Information
__B. Enhancing the Information Capacity of Individuals
__C. Promoting Public Engagement
Conclusion and a Call to Action
Endnotes
Appendices
__Taking Stock: Are You a Healthy Information Community?
__Executive Director’s Memo: Potential Action Items
__Speakers at Meetings of the Knight Commission
__Speakers at Knight Commission Community Forums
__Informal Advisors
__Members of the Commission