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Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy at Harvard Book Store
presenting
What Works in Community News:
Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate
DateFeb
26
Monday
February 26, 2024 7:00 PM ET |
LocationHarvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Tickets
This event is free; no tickets are required.
|
Harvard Book Store welcomes ELLEN CLEGG—long-time Boston Globe reporter and co-founder of Brookline.News—and DAN KENNEDY—nationally known media commentator and journalism professor at Northeastern University—for a discussion of their new book What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate.
About What Works in Community News
Local news is essential to democracy. Meaningful participation in civic life is impossible without it. However, local news is in crisis. According to one widely cited study, some 2,500 newspapers have closed over the last generation. And it is often marginalized communities of color who have been left without the day-to-day journalism they need to govern themselves in a democracy.
Veteran journalists Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy cut through the pessimism surrounding this issue, showing readers that new, innovative journalism models are popping up across the country to fill news deserts and empower communities. What Works in Community News examines more than a dozen of these projects, including:
- Sahan Journal, a digital publication dedicated to reporting on Minnesota’s immigrant and refugee communities;
- MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit news outlet in Memphis, TN, focused on poverty, power, and public policy;
- New Haven Independent / WNHH / La Voz Hispana de Connecticut, a digital news project that expanded its reach in the New Haven community through radio and a Spanish-language partnership;
- Storm Lake Times Pilot, a print newspaper in rural Iowa innovating with a hybrid for-profit/nonprofit model; and
- Texas Tribune, once a pioneering upstart, now one of the most well-known—and successful—digital newsrooms in the country.
Through a blend of on-the-ground reporting and interviews, Clegg and Kennedy show how these operations found seed money and support, and how they hired staff, forged their missions, and navigated challenges from the pandemic to police intimidation to stand as the last bastion of collective truth—and keep local news in local hands.
Praise for What Works in Community News
“A fresh, optimistic, and necessary exploration of what really works in the crucially important realm of local news.” —Margaret Sullivan, author of Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy
“A great and important book . . . Provides great hope that the field is full of passionate, brilliant people who are going to figure this out.” —Steven Waldman, founder of Rebuild Local News and cofounder of Report for America
“A valuable reference book for entrepreneurs and a compelling read for anyone interested in saving and reviving local news.” —Penelope Muse Abernathy, author of Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability
Masking Policy
Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.
Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes
As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.
Unable to attend a Harvard Book Store author event? You can still pre-order a signed book by one of our visiting authors.
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