Journalism Up From the Ashes
Learning from students to reinvent local news
A week ago, I started my first Zoom class with our News Innovation and Leadership students — managing editors, vice-presidents, directors, and CEOs among them — with characteristic élan, asking: “How fucked are we?”
The next week, we worked together to imagine how to build local journalism anew, from the ashes. One of the students, Kim Bui, who is now on a week’s imposed furlough at Gannett’s Arizona Republic, proposed a framework for choosing how to use scarce resources: utility v. transparency. We want to do both — service and investigation — but can afford only one, a tough choice.
A fellow student, Thierry Backes, brought an example of utility journalism from his paper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, where is is managing editor. He had to miss the prior week’s class so he could launch it. München bringt’s — “Munich brings it” — maps Munich businesses that can deliver their goods and services to readers while they are forced to stay home.
The next day, I heard from one of our Social Journalism graduates, Sebastián Auyanet, who similarly responded to immediate need in his hometown, Montevideo, Uruguay, to collaborate with developers and create the means for local food merchants to use WhatsApp to offer, sell, and deliver fruits, vegetables, and…
