Ruta Ulcinaite

Who’s Responsible for the Decline of Media?

Many newsroom employees are very quick to point their fingers at specific organizations and technologies for layoffs and declining local news overall. But who is really to blame? The rise of the internet? The rise of social media?  Jeremy Littau wrote in his Slate article that the bad seed goes back to the 1980’s and… Continue reading Who’s Responsible for the Decline of Media?

Katie Kalass

SOS: It’s Time to Save Local News

While we navigate through a transformative period of news and media, one fact holds true: we will always need news. Nonetheless, it’s changing — and changing fast. As we rebuild the news media, journalists all over the world are losing their jobs. There are few remaining local reporters; yet, our need for coverage increases everyday.… Continue reading SOS: It’s Time to Save Local News

Rianna Middleton

Tick Tock, Time to Innovate

It’s easy to blame the internet and tech startups like Facebook and Google for the journalism crisis. The internet destroyed the old business model and tech startups stole the ad revenue that newspapers relied on to stay alive. It wasn’t the media industry’s fault —  disruptors simply came into the market and took more than… Continue reading Tick Tock, Time to Innovate

Casey Harrison

I was told to find a path out of journalism, but that’s the last thing I’m going to do

I was getting ready to leave the Breslin Center on Michigan State’s campus on a Monday afternoon a few weeks back when I stopped to chat with a mentor of mine. I asked him about the Free Press’ summer internship and the best way to apply. He told me some names, but at the end… Continue reading I was told to find a path out of journalism, but that’s the last thing I’m going to do

Uncategorized · Zimo Wang

Local news exist like oxygen

In China, we have a metaphor sentence structure: XXX is like oxygen, you won’t realize its importance until you lose it one day. In this case, I think “local journalism” fits the sentence. In the article “Gannett and the last great local hope”, the author said “a future without local newspapers is by now a… Continue reading Local news exist like oxygen

Mckenna Ross

Funding local news requires a new attitude about journalism

If I’ve learned anything from the recent news of media companies with massive layoffs, it’s that the news media’s main issue is that it has been massively devalued. In a Slate article, “The Crisis Facing American Journalism Did Not Start With the Internet,” the author, Jeremy Littau, notes that the economic fall of journalism isn’t just about massive publishers… Continue reading Funding local news requires a new attitude about journalism