The New America Foundation

Public Forum Informing Scranton: Gauging Community News and Information Needs

WHEN:
7 pm., Wednesday, March 3, 2010

WHERE:
University of Scranton, DeNaples Center, McIlhenny Ballroom (4th Floor)

WHAT:
This forum will open public discussion on ways to invigorate local news and information, increase citizen engagement and improve access to high-quality information. Residents of the Greater Scranton area and elected officials are invited to talk about the availability and accessibility of local news and information and the needs of an informed citizenry.

The topics of discussion will be guided by the findings of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. In October 2009, the commission — a group of concerned academics, media representatives and civic leaders — produced a report titled “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.” The commission made recommendations on how to improve public engagement, increase the availability of information and expand the capacity of citizens to receive news.

WHO:
The New America Foundation, a public policy institute based in Washington, DC.

Presenter Jessica Durkin is a New America Foundation Fellow studying the “new news” ecosystem and local media in the Scranton area. Her research for New America is guided by the Knight Commission’s “Informing Communities” report. Ms. Durkin, a Scranton resident and former newspaper reporter, is the founder of InOtherNew.us, a directory of online community news start-ups.

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy: The Knight Commission is a 17-member group of media, policy and community leaders. Its purpose is to assess the information needs of communities, and recommend measures to help Americans better meet those needs. The Knight Commission sees new thinking about news and information as a necessary step to sustaining democracy in the digital age. It thus follows in the footsteps of the 1940s Hutchins Commission and the Kerner and Carnegie Commissions of the 1960s.

The New America Foundation Media Policy Initiative: The Media Policy Initiative (MPI), part of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, is a newly launched hub of forward thinking academics, technologists, strategists, policy analysts and journalists. MPI’s work centers on the recently published Knight Commission Report titled: 'Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.'

The Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy -- an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality. The foundation's mission is animated by the American ideal that each generation will live better than the last.