Welcome to the Local Fix. Each week we look at key debates in journalism sustainability and community engagement through the lens of local news.  But first, we always begin with one good idea…

One Good Idea: Strengthen your reporting on refugees and asylum seekers

Navigating the crisis and turmoil facing refugees and asylum seekers can be overwhelming for reporters. Journalists want to report responsibly, but also need to take into account issues of trauma, complicated ethical questions and legal contexts. With all that in mind, Canadian media company The Discourse assembled a toolkit for reporting on refugees. They pulled together tips for interviewing refugees from settlement workers, academics, and refugees. They also offer advice for refugees themselves as they are approached by the news media. We see a lot of value in these kinds of “two-way guides,” that speak to both communities and reporters about how together we can tell more full, authentic and honest stories.

Resources and models for covering immigration 

Local newsrooms have been essential to the coverage of family separations in recent weeks. Many of the local outlets who are covering these issues have been on the beat for a long time, giving them a unique position to connect local stories to national debates at a moment of profound public attention. The Texas Tribune is following developments closely, dedicating a section of its website to coverage. A coalition of newsrooms across the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador have been partnering to report on children separated from their families. If you want a round-up of immigration news from local outlets around the country, the Migratory Notes newsletter offers a weekly rundown of what’s happening in immigration reporting. As the complex crisis continues to unfold at the border, we’ve also rounded up a handful of helpful resources and tips for those covering the immigration beat. 

• Families Divided (series) – Texas Tribune
• Migratory Notes Newsletter – Daniela Gerson and Elizabeth Aguilera
• News outlets join forces to track down children separated from their parents by the U.S. – Poynter 
• The ongoing difficulty of keeping attention on the border – Columbia Journalism Review
• “Almost Everyone, On Every Beat, Becomes an Immigration Reporter at Some Point” – Nieman Reports
• Covering Immigrants & Immigration: Tips from Experts – DART
• Journalists’ resources for reporting on immigration – Poynter
   

Seek out community media centers 

Welcome to our new subscribers from the Alliance for Community Media conference this week! At ACM, we joined in on discussions about how public, educational, and government access stations can help address communities’ information and news needs. Many stations are “committing acts of journalism,” but are overlooked when we talk about collaboration, news ecosystems and community engagement. They can be conveners, offer resources, training, access to equipment, space, and more. The Alliance for Community Media represents more than 3,000 community access stations so there is likely one near you. These community media centers have service to communities at their core, and there is a lot to learn from them. Here are just a few examples, from the archives and more recently, that can inspire you. 

• Building a multi-platform media for—and by—the public [2012] – Columbia Journalism Review  
• Somerville Media Center’s Erica Jones: Empowering voices through community media – Wicked Local  
• Community Information Toolkit [2012] – Access Humboldt  
• How Public Access TV Evolved into Community Media Centers [2010] – MediaShift 
• PEG Media Awards of 2018 – Alliance for Community Media
• Old City: PhillyCAM Provides Community with Media Access – Philadelphia Neighborhoods 
• GNAT launches ‘News Project’ for and by the community – VTDigger 
   

Is Russia exploiting trust in local news near you?

NPR reported this week that “information operatives” working as part of a broad Russian influence campaign set up Twitter accounts posing as local news organizations. Instead of spreading misinformation, however, researchers tracking these accounts noticed that “they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort.” Craig Silverman of BuzzFeed who has been tracking misinformation for years predicted that these types of accounts are likely going to be a bigger part of disinformation campaigns around local midterm elections. “Local newsrooms need to be ready,” he tweeted. Below are links to resources and trainings for local newsrooms who want to build their skills in this area and new evidence for why local news is so important to the fight against misinformation. 

• Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans’ Trust In Local News – NPR 
• U.S. newsrooms are ‘largely unprepared’ to address misinformation online – Poynter 
• Partnering with local news organizations helps efforts to combat misinformation reach people across the political spectrum – First Draft  
• First Draft has compiled an incredible collection training resources on combating misinformation for newsrooms – First Draft 

Have a good weekend,
Josh, Teresa and Rachel
@jcstearns, @gteresa, @rachelannwegner

The Local Fix is a project of the Democracy Fund’s Public Square Program, which invests in innovations and institutions that are reinventing local media and expanding the public square. Disclosure: Some projects mentioned in this newsletter may be funded by Democracy Fund, you can find a full list of the organizations we support on our website.