Blog

  • How We Are Working with Universities to Strengthen Local Journalism

    An update on our work at the Geraldine R. Foundation. Amazing partners in universities across New Jersey are helping us support and strengthen the NJ new ecosystem. Read more

  • 29 Journalism Sessions Worth Voting for at SXSW

    29 Journalism Sessions Worth Voting for at SXSW

    The deadline for voting on SXSW sessions is September 4th. Below I’ve rounded up a few session ideas that caught my attention. Go forth, vote, comment and share. Community Engagement and Public Powered Journalism I’m most interested in sessions that look at the role of media and technology on the lives of people and communitiesContinue… Read more

  • Memories of the Animas River Before it Ran Yellow

    Mine waste from the Gold King Mine filling the Animas River at Bakers Bridge heading down river to Durango. pic.twitter.com/LOiTulZteA — jerry mcbride (@jerryphotog) August 6, 2015 Yes, we mourn for people, but sometimes we also mourn for places. We can mourn their loss, when we return after many years have passed and find themContinue… Read more

  • Why newsrooms should train their communities in verification, news literacy, and eyewitness media

    Why newsrooms should train their communities in verification, news literacy, and eyewitness media

    If newsrooms want to help stem the spread of misinformation online and get access to better eyewitness media they should embrace community engagement. Bringing communities into the news process is a powerful way to spread journalistic values, train residents on reporting processes and foster user generated content that is more useful for newsrooms. Newsrooms are wellContinue… Read more

  • New Collaboration Focuses on Building Verification Resources for Journalists and Citizens

    New Collaboration Focuses on Building Verification Resources for Journalists and Citizens

    I’m excited to be joining the First Draft Coalition, which launches today. The coalition brings together leading organizations and individuals working in verification and eyewitness media to create new tools, resources and trainings for journalists and the public. Here is a bit more detail from the announcement. Our founding members, from different organisations and projects, are eachContinue… Read more

  • Building Journalism With Community, Not For It

    Building Journalism With Community, Not For It

    At the end of last year Kristin Hare of the Poynter Institute was collecting tech resolutions for 2015 and asked for mine. Here is what I wrote: In 2015 I want to help more journalists build with their communities, not just for their communities. At so many publications, journalists are rebuilding their newsrooms around new technologiesContinue… Read more

  • A Secret History of Unmanned Bombing

    A Secret History of Unmanned Bombing

    Last week America’s drone war was brought back into sharp focus when President Obama admitted that a US drone strike in January killed two al Qaeda hostages, an American and an Italian. “It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally, and our fight against terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadlyContinue… Read more

  • The Art of the Commons

    The Art of the Commons

    (This essay was originally published in Orion Magazine’s spring 2015 issue) There is a growing recognition that the solutions to some of our greatest struggles are rooted in our relationships to one another. They are built by hand, often slowly, and begin in our communities. From the environment to the economy, conservation to culture, peopleContinue… Read more

  • Building Journalism With Community Starts With Building Trust

    Building Journalism With Community Starts With Building Trust

    In early 2015 I wrote a post about why journalists should focus on building the future of news with communities, not just for them. I’m following up on that post with a series of profiles of people trying to embody this community-first approach. Profile One: Jeremy Hay and EPA Now Jeremy Hay is a KnightContinue… Read more