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: Find Stories in Someone Else’s Shoes
The Empathy Museum describes itself as “the first experiential arts space dedicated to helping us all look at the world through other people’s eyes.” For example, their “mile in my shoes” project asks people to take pictures of their shoes and write about their life. Looking through the website it is easy to imagine how local news could use this model to surface story ideas, gain new community perspectives, and help connect local neighbors in new ways.  

Catalyzing Culture Change

A recent study found that for the most part newspapers have embraced technological innovation, but “journalists responded less favorably to relational changes” such as community engagement and “cultural changes that challenge perceptions of ‘what journalism is and how it is — or ought to be — done.’” (The entire piece is worth a read) This study made us go back to some recent writing on culture change in the newsroom:

• Our Plan for Enabling News Innovation Through Culture Change – American Press Institute 
• The Goat Must Be Fed: Why Digital Tools are Missing from Local Newsrooms – Duke Reporters’ Lab 
• The Engagement Manifesto – The Center for Collaborative Journalism  
• Declaration of Dependance for Communities and Journalists – The Local News Lab 
   

A Big Week for Comments

In the last two weeks: 1) MIT’s Media Lab hosted a great event called Beyond Comments. 2) At SXSW the Coral Project team – a partnership between the New York Times, Washington Post and Mozilla – introduced their first app which helps publishers categorize and engage communities around their actions and expertise. 3) Melody Kramer documented 27 ways to think about comments. 4) Sara Wachter-Boettcher wrote about feedback she gets from men and why she isn’t “too sensitive” 5) The Engaging News project released new research on who comments and why. If you care about building strong communities around the news online and offline, you’ve got some good reading ahead. 

• Here are 27 ways to think about comments – Poynter
• “Trust,” the First App from The Coral Project, Launches – Washington Post 
• Who is Posting Comments and Why Do They Do It? – Nieman Lab
• Notes From Beyond Comments Event – Coral Project
• Too Sensitive – Sara Wachter-Boettcher 

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Print Is (Not) Dead

On the On The Media podcast this week Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield remind us that radio was supposed to kill theater, TV was supposed to kill radio, and digital was supposed to kill print. But, while the role of print may be changing, all signs suggest print isn’t dying. While On The Media’s episode focused on books, other recent pieces have looked at how print and digital journalism can support each other. 

• Case Studies: Making Print Products Work for Digital News Organizations – Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism 
• Print is the new ‘new media’ – Columbia Journalism Review 
• On Print and Digital News Consumption – Leonard Bogdonoff 

Have a good weekend,
Molly and Josh 

The Local Fix is a project of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Local News Lab, a website where we are exploring creative experiments in journalism sustainability.