Community Anchor Institutions

The Federal Communications Commission is moving toward adopting a new rule that community television groups say would gut funding for public, educational and governmental channels. “The loser if that ends up happening will be the local taxpayer, the local cable subscriber and the everyday citizens who rely on access to public information that’s provided through these programs,” said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

A coalition of organizations told the Federal Communications Commission that the FCC should retain its children's programming rules. The Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Common Sense Kids Action, Color of Change, Dr. Jenny Radesky, and the Benton Foundation wrote:

For residents in thousands of communities across the country – inner-city neighborhoods, affluent suburbs and rural towns– local newspapers have been the prime, if not sole, source of credible and comprehensive news and information that can affect the quality of their everyday lives. Yet, in the past decade and a half, nearly one in five newspapers has disappeared, and countless others have become shells – or “ghosts” – of themselves. Our research found a net loss since 2004 of almost 1,800 local newspapers.

The rise of digital media labs and spaces for content creation in public libraries has been documented in the scholarly literature. However, fewer studies have investigated the outcomes of media literacy initiatives in community media centers (CMCs) and how they might inform similar programs and services in public libraries. This article reports findings from a study that used qualitative research to investigate the current goals and activities of CMCs across the United States.

Addressing community challenges – education, a strong economy, race, and social equity – means that every community institution needs to be part of the solution. And mayors and elected county officials are wise to understand one institution – the public library – brings a unique mix of assets to the table:

Touch:  Pew Research data shows that 80 percent of Americans have been to a public library at some point in a given year – either in-person or online.

On Aug 24, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) signed a law that aims to fill the local news void in New Jersey by creating the Civic Information Consortium, a grant-making organization led by a group of universities that would fund media start-ups. Supporters have said this is the first endeavor of its kind in the nation. But Gov Murphy's signing statement raised doubt about how much money they state immediately could dedicate to the cause.

At the  DeWitt Wallace Center’s News Measures Research Project, we set out to document the extent to which communities have access to robust local journalism and determine whether certain types of communities are more at risk than others. We studied 100 US communities and found:

New Jersey's lawmakers have embarked on a novel experiment to address a local news crisis: putting up millions of dollars in the state’s most recent budget to pay for community journalism.