‘A journalist should step correct:’ Building trust in local news, Columbia Journalism Review
“‘A journalist should step correct:’ Building trust in local news” provides a useful summary of months of assessment and conversation about local journalism with two demographically different neighborhoods in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
Four fellows at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism developed a participatory process for workshops comprising residents, community leaders, educators and journalists, among others, to brainstorm ideas for how local Philadelphia media can better serve the needs of its disparate communities. Participant feedback included addressing local news gaps and utilizing informal networks — like community newsletters and local Facebook groups — for sharing information. Other suggestions included training and empowering citizens to fill coverage gaps at public meetings, connecting with communities to deepen the source pools and providing better context and history when writing about individual communities.
Kristy Roschke, managing director of the ASU News Co/Lab, is a media scholar and educator. She previously served as executive director of KJZZ – SPOT 127 Youth Media Center, a community initiative of the Phoenix NPR member station that mentors and empowers the next-generation of digital storytellers.