Citizen & Community News

In “The Storm Collection,” Sloan and Thompson show us a near future in which people don’t have to interrupt their lives to get information. There is no dedicated period of time, no discrete thing, connected with news consumption.

In “The Storm Collection,” Sloan and Thompson show us a near future in which people don’t have to interrupt their lives to get information. There is no dedicated period of time, no discrete thing, connected with news consumption.

In short, the publishers are becoming more businesslike and less obsessed about corporate media hobgoblins, real or imagined. At the Summit, 22 of them announced they’ve formed a trade group for independent local online news publishers, and a different group announced the formation of the Chicago Independent Advertising Network.

The two-day summit is intended “to get these like-minded publishers in the same room and let them share ideas in person and understand where they might be in their business compared to others.”

Block by Block will be hosting this week its second annual Block by Block Community News Summit (#bxb11), an independent, online local news publishers gathering in Chicago, Sep. 29-Oct. 1. The event, sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute, the Patterson Foundation, the Knight Foundation and Loyola University will bring together 200 of America’s online citizen journalism publishers.

Couldn't join us for Block by Block? Don't fret, there are many ways to participate online.

The Seattle Times recently reorganized its newsroom and the new structure recognizes three key roles for the organization: Creation, Curation, Community

KOMU Columbia, Mo., in DMA138, has taken the plunge into social media news, last week launching a 4 p.m. newscast that makes viewers an integral part of the show. And there’s a social media desk that includes two reporters tracking bloggers, Tweets and online conversations about topics making the news.

Michele McLellan shares her view on the ways people should approach news now.

American journalism is at a tipping point. The Internet has disrupted the business model that underwrote local news for more than 100 years. The Great Recession made matters worse, resulting in local newspaper and television newsrooms dramatically cutting staffs and other news resources.