Local News & Information

I was struck by how natural the idea of serving the public felt inside libraries. I had spent much of my career pushing, prodding, arguing, fighting, pleading and even begging for community participation in journalism. And yet, despite claiming to be “the voice of the people,” many news organizations are incredibly hesitant or don’t actually want... See more

We’ve said this a hundred times before, but it’s always worth repeating: the world’s biggest news organisations aren’t reflecting the world. They are reflecting what’s dramatic, rare, and cheap enough to turn into a story. If you’re after an accurate picture of what’s getting worse, or what’s improving, you’ll need to look somewhere other than the... See more

Americans no longer have an accurate sense of their own society. For example, a few years ago, a poll showed that Americans, on average, think Muslims are seventeen times as large a portion of the U.S. population as they actually are. Another poll showed that most Americans think a majority of immigrants are in the country illegally (in fact, 77%... See more