Scores of small local papers have shuttered and many radio stations have little local reporting anymore, creating news deserts around the country that are at best ill-served by the growth of partisan and social media. It’s important to appreciate that social media is merely a vehicle to deliver information that’s both useful and useless, with the latter often disguised as the former.
Some, such as the Epoch Times, seek to fill that growing void with agenda-driven information dressed up to look like news. Outside of the propaganda/fake news world, two big things are happening in journalism. One is the digital transformation and business remodeling that legacy media is working through. This is where The World-Herald is, along with most of the rest of traditional media. The other is the rise of nonprofit journalism organizations, two of which have emerged in the past year in Nebraska with broader ambitions than niche digital nonprofits such as NOISE Omaha, meant to serve a specific community.
Journalists are mission-driven. Besides being inveterate storytellers, we believe mightily in government accountability. We believe people should be treated fairly and we believe in finding help for those who need it. A person doesn’t have to be in journalism long to see how our work can serve those ends.
So the more than 300 members of the Institute for Nonprofit News around the country are generally created and staffed by dedicated, experienced journalists seeking to find sustainable ways to pursue their mission.
