III. Higher education, community and non-profit institutions

III. Higher education, community and non-profit institutions can be hubs of journalistic activity and other information-sharing for local communities

The Knight Commission observed that, through networked journalism, technology is enabling a diffusion of news gathering functions, creating greater coverage of local affairs. In addition to teaching, schools of journalism are increasing production of local news content and partnering with news organizations and community groups. Community and non-profit organizations are undertaking journalistic activity in response to the decline in local news. Local foundations are supporting local news and information projects.

The Commission wrote, “Non-profit 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. All should make a priority of sharing information within the community and providing the tools necessary to turn information into knowledge.”

The Commission acknowledged, “Situating journalistic activity in non-profit advocacy organizations raises critical ethical questions. Independence of judgment and sensitivity to conflicts of interest are hallmarks of the best journalism. Because non-profit advocacy organizations are committed to mobilizing public support for their particular issues, striving for dispassionate reporting will pose important issues.”

But it asserted that, with appropriate training and resources, local non-profits could help their communities by performing some functions of journalism. This can be a vital part of re-imagining journalism for a networked world.

How far might this expansion of self-reporting journalism go? In California, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, the Los Angeles County supervisor’s office and the state trial lawyers’ group all hired former journalists to report about them. In Portland, Oregon, the local Metro government hired a reporter to cover it.

A Portland Oregonian story about these examples quoted Geneva Overholser, director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, as saying that any contribution of information in the public interest is valuable. “The key is transparency—being forthright about who pays for the work, what the intentions of the organization are in putting the work forward, who edits it, etc. I think the public needs to train a keen eye on self-reporting. But I’d rather have it than no reporting.”63

It is increasingly clear that the traditional functions of journalism can and will be performed outside of traditional news organizations. The critical questions concern how good this new journalism will be, what values and standards it upholds and what public service it provides. Professional journalists and journalism educators should embrace this reality and help make the most of it.

A. Re-invent journalism education for the networked world

While many schools of journalism are embarking on new endeavors to teach and create journalism, there is a need for a systematic re-examination of journalism curriculum. Journalism is unlikely to re-imagine itself for a networked world if journalism education does not lead the way.

The Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC) should pursue foundation support for an organized, field-wide review of journalism education, curriculum, research and accreditation standards. This would be a concerted effort to re-invent journalism education.

It could examine everything from journalism ethics to communication theory. It could explore new areas of interdisciplinary study, including communication technologies, networks, community building and social capital. It could teach news and media literacy to non-journalism majors. It could teach non-journalists to create content and use digital communication technologies.

Educators are well suited to lead this exploration because they are not bound to any particular media platform or industry. They are naturally more connected to the next generation of journalists, who must imagine how the next generation of consumers will get their news.

This endeavor would unfold against a backdrop of tighter academic budgets and threatened programs, but journalism and communications schools are in a period of transformation and new possibilities.64

Foundations are already investing substantial dollars in new journalism eduction programs, such as entrepreneurial journalism at the City University of New York.65 New forms of collaboration, such as News21, a national initiative to revitalize journalism education, can bring synergy at the same time that they foster innovation. Teaching others what has been learned and how they can develop similar programs is part of the expectation News21 has for itself.66

In addition to teaching journalism, colleges and universities are creating and sharing content that enhances a healthy flow of news and information. This clearly is a step on the path toward the Knight Commission Recommendation 3, to increase the role of higher education as a hub of journalistic activity.

AEJMC can lead the effort to scale such activities to benefit journalism education generally.
B. Use journalism schools to produce digital news and to create content partnerships with news organizations

Some journalism schools are creating new models to help fill the void in local news coverage. They are teaching by doing in unprecedented ways. For example:

• Boston University’s College of Communication created the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. NECIR describes itself as the “first non-profit, university-based investigative reporting collaborative in the country focused on local and regional issues.”67

• The Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism created hyperlocal news sites with J-school students covering underserved communities in the Bay Area.68

• The Annenberg School at the University of Southern California created Intersections: The Los Angeles Reporting Project. It is a community news website that uses multimedia reporting by students, community residents and community leaders. It also created Alhambra Source, which presents community news in English, Chinese and Spanish.69

• Wayne State University created GrossePointeToday.com, which uses content from online journalism students and citizens with oversight from professional journalists.70

• The Teachers College at Columbia University created the Hechinger Report to provide in-depth coverage of national education issues. It operates in collaboration with other news organizations.71

• Journalism students at Columbia College Chicago produce AustinTalks, a community newsletter serving Chicago’s largest neighborhood. Professional journalists and citizens also contribute content.72

• The New York Times and New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute are collaborating on the Local East Village, as part of the newspaper’s network of community websites. The site was built by NYU faculty and students, working with Times journalists and software developers.73

NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, who helped create the East Village effort, said, “When the crisis came, and all of a sudden there was this need for innovation and new practices and new business models and new technology, the industry did not have a journalism school to rely on because it never asked for it. I see these partnerships as correcting a misalignment between journalism schools and the news business.”74

A preconvention discussion at the 2010 AEJMC national conference examined how journalism schools are functioning as news providers.75 This topic should be established as an ongoing interest of AEJMC to promote the rapid replication of successful models.
C. Create journalistic activity within libraries

Librarians, like journalists, are redefining their roles in the networked world. In examining how libraries can serve networked individuals, Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, observes:

• Curating means more than collecting.

• Creating media involves alliances among networked creators.

• Librarians must find new ways to distribute their collections and point people to good material through links.

• Librarians must exploit their skills in knowing the highest quality material and aggregating the best related work.76

There are clear parallels between the evolving roles of journalists and librarians. Both are increasingly called upon to regard community building and engagement as part of their mission. But there has been little study, experimentation or dialogue about how journalists and libraries might work together to promote community news.

One example of collaboration between journalists and librarians is the Black Hills (South Dakota) Knowledge Network, funded by grants from the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge and the Black Hills Area Community Foundation. Journalists and librarians aggregate content developed by local government, media, non-profits and other community institutions. The project also aims to train community journalists to fill gaps in local news coverage.77

Efforts of this sort could be catalyzed by a grant competition, soliciting proposals for innovative projects. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary federal agency dedicated to library services, should initiate the endeavor. Such an undertaking is consistent with the Institute’s mission to “create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.”78

Journalism That Matters, the American Library Association, the MIT Center for Future Civic Media and other associations conducted a work session at MIT in April 2011 for journalists, librarians and the public. Approximately 130 people participated in the gathering, which generated a consensus statement for future journalist/librarian collaboration. It says, in part:

Healthy communities need individuals and institutions that support and enable broad-based participation in governance, education and civic life. As journalists, librarians, educators and civic agents, we are committed to communities where members can participate in self-governance. In these communities the common pursuit of truth in the public interest prevails through essential democratic values of openness, inclusion, participation and empowerment. Our libraries and our free press share a common mission of civic engagement and information transparency.79

Success in this effort almost certainly would inspire other community and nonprofit institutions, such as science museums, to explore ways to become hubs of local journalistic activity.

Previous Page | Next Page: IV Greater urgency on relevance, research and revenues