Re-examining the local journalism crisis
Kristen Hare has been reporting individual cases of newsroom cutbacks since early in the pandemic; The Tow Center’s Cutback Tracker depends on much of her excellent work. Now, in a new project for Poynter Recovering the News Hare hopes to focus on solutions to the local news problem.
The project’s title hints at some of its goals: promoting recovery and health among beleaguered news outlets and “re-covering” the news as in, covering the news crisis a second time, with an attentive eye. “Every time something would come up that I didn’t have time to cover, I drop something in my notes to come back to later,” Hare says. “
Five big findings from the Journalism Crisis Project cjr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cjr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The limitations of the ‘news ecosystem’ metaphor
Metaphors are useful, until they’re not. A few years ago, I taught basic ecology to preschool students, using a tarp as a teaching tool. I would help a group of small children gather on the blue piece of plastic, explaining that each child represented an animal and that the confines of the blue plastic square represented their home. Over time, I would fold the tarp in halves as the “ecosystem” deteriorated, narrating a series of imagined environmental factors. Students would shuffle, contort, or be forced to step off the tarp. Animals in changing environments, I told them, must likewise move, adapt, or die.
Amanda Richardson talks the path to nonprofit news in New Jersey
Last week, the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media announced that the New Jersey Hills Media Group had committed to a partnership to convert all fourteen of the chain’s newspapers to non-profit ownership. If the transition is successful, New Jersey Hills Media Group will be the largest nonprofit weekly newspaper chain in the country.
CJR spoke to Amanda Richardson, executive director of the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media, about the process of establishing a partnership, the nonprofit business model, and hopes for the future. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Brazilians take part in a protest against president Jair Bolsonaro and his management of the COVID-19 outbreak, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 31 January 2021, Cris Faga/NurPhoto January 2021 in the Americas: A free expression round up produced by IFEX s Regional Editor Paula Martins, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
Identifying vulnerabilities in ‘digital solutions’ developed in the fight against COVID
In late January, IFEX member Fundación Karisma launched a report that documents and systematizes the vulnerabilities found and reported by the organisation’s K+LAB Digital Security and Privacy Laboratory during 2020.
According to the report, both the national and regional governments in Colombia reacted to the COVID pandemic with ‘digital solutions’ to complement other measures – mainly restrictions on movement and circulation. Apart from research into whether these technological solutions are effective, the fact that they revolve arou