Author and journalism professor Dan Kennedy will discuss the future of local news during his keynote address at Fitchburg State University’s upcoming institute on news and information literacy.
Kennedy’s talk, entitled “What Works: The Future of Local News” will be given at 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12 at the Fitchburg Historical Society, 781 Main St. Admission is free and open to the public.
Kennedy, a professor at Northeastern University, researches opinion journalism, media ethics and the future of local news. Kennedy co-hosts a website and podcast, “What Works: The Future of Local News” with Ellen Clegg, with whom he co-authored a same-titled book on the subject. He is also a frequent contributor to Boston news programs on topics related to the media, and has his own website, dankennedy.net.
Fitchburg State’s free summer institute is designed for K-12 and college educators to help them prepare students with lessons on news and information literacy, as well those interested in learning more about the role of quality journalism in a healthy democracy. State educators who register for the conference are also eligible for a stipend. This includes K-12 educators, college and community college instructors, and emeritus faculty.
The past 20 years have seen an unprecedented rise in challenges facing journalism at the local and national levels, ranging from dwindling subscriber numbers to the manipulation of news and information via social media platforms and bad actors. This has created several news deserts in communities where journalism is necessary to inform the people of the activities, policies, and decisions made by their local, state, and national governments. It also requires new strategies to engage - or re-engage - audiences, and to orient them to the new models of journalism and publishing, focusing on the differences between straightforward reporting and opinion-based media content that is further facilitated by new media technologies.
Fitchburg and its surrounding communities are no different, requiring unique strategies and hands-on involvement of an entire community of practitioners, audiences, publishers, reporters, and educators. This summer institute will offer educators whose disciplines intersect with issues of news and information literacy, along with high school educators, a hands-on opportunity to learn more about the growing crises facing our country - including journalism, civic engagement, civic life, and news and information literacy - and ways they can integrate their classroom and curricular work into the solution. This institute will be particularly relevant to professors and instructors who teach courses and content including journalism, communication, media and news literacy, research methods, and history.
The journalism conference happening Aug. 12-14 is led by Associate Professors Kyle Moody and J.J. Sylvia of the Communications Media Department, Associate Professor Wafa Unus and Assistant Professor Collin Syfert of the English Studies Department, Head of Instruction and Information Literacy at the Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library, Renee Fratantonio, and Professor Paul Weizer of the Economics, History, and Political Science Department. This team of faculty members has jointly led various initiatives on news and information literacy over the past several years.
Learn more about the conference and register online. In addition to the keynote with Dan Kennedy, sessions will include Fitchburg Access Television Executive Director Nathan Glenny, Sentinel & Enterprise Editor Brendan Lewis, Worcester Telegram & Gazette Editor Mike Elfland '86, Harvard Press Editor John Osborn and Dr. Zahed Arman of Framingham State University.