The local news contract is broken. Civic media can fix it
Darryl Holliday on how City Bureau's Documenters' program models the new social contract needed for local news and the civic media system emerging today.
Civic Media Series
The Objective, in partnership with Free Press and members of the Future of Local News Collective, is publishing personal essays from local news leaders across an emerging field.
Latest in Civic Media Series
Media policy: Local news for the people
Five key policy-making principles and concrete proposals to support civic information needs.
To save the free press, newsgathering must be reclaimed as a public trust
Michael Swerdlow on the necessity of publicly funding the news media.
Thinking beyond ‘DEI’ to make equitable media
Andrea D. Wenzel on reimagining an equitable, cooperative, and sustainable local media system amid overlapping crises.
Libraries are a locus for civic change
Jennie Rose Halperin on the need to invest in underexplored partnerships between civic media makers and libraries as a clear place of change.
Students plugging local news gaps isn’t sustainable for students, communities, or journalism
Carla Murphy on how expecting college students to “fill the gap” in local news without addressing institutional power may reify inequities.
Looking to earth and ecology to revive local news
Jennifer Brandel on the civic potential of journalism that reorients toward the land.
A letter from the Civic Media Magazine editors
Introducing the digital version of the Civic Media Magazine: The stories here show what’s possible when we reimagine local news not just as something to consume, but as a tool for community action.
To promote civic information, we need to measure it
The new Civic Information Needs Census exists thanks to the understanding that measuring information needs is critical for those creating civic information.
Catalyzing civic media movement is our way out of the ‘local news crisis’
Let's treat the current state of the industry like the civic health crisis it is.
Media policy: Local news for the people
Five key policy-making principles and concrete proposals to support civic information needs.
To save the free press, newsgathering must be reclaimed as a public trust
Michael Swerdlow on the necessity of publicly funding the news media.
Thinking beyond ‘DEI’ to make equitable media
Andrea D. Wenzel on reimagining an equitable, cooperative, and sustainable local media system amid overlapping crises.
Libraries are a locus for civic change
Jennie Rose Halperin on the need to invest in underexplored partnerships between civic media makers and libraries as a clear place of change.
Students plugging local news gaps isn’t sustainable for students, communities, or journalism
Carla Murphy on how expecting college students to “fill the gap” in local news without addressing institutional power may reify inequities.
Looking to earth and ecology to revive local news
Jennifer Brandel on the civic potential of journalism that reorients toward the land.
A letter from the Civic Media Magazine editors
Introducing the digital version of the Civic Media Magazine: The stories here show what’s possible when we reimagine local news not just as something to consume, but as a tool for community action.
To promote civic information, we need to measure it
The new Civic Information Needs Census exists thanks to the understanding that measuring information needs is critical for those creating civic information.
Catalyzing civic media movement is our way out of the ‘local news crisis’
Let's treat the current state of the industry like the civic health crisis it is.