Martín Carcasson’s article published in National Civic Review

Professor and Center for Public Deliberation Director Martín Carcasson has published the article “Taking on Two Crises: Democracy and Journalism” in National Civic Review.

Excerpt:

Dual crises in democracy and journalism are occurring in communities across the country. Democracy is struggling as partisanship, polarization, and growing authoritarian tendencies and bad faith actors undermine our trust in institutions, expertise, and each other. Local journalism has been in crisis for a couple decades as the financial model has collapsed with the growth of the internet (which both took away advertising dollars and provided so much free content that many people are no longer willing to pay for–or in some cases pay attention to–local journalism). Thousands of local newsrooms have closed their doors and most others have significantly cut staff. These two crises are deeply interconnected, as democracy and journalism have always been. Thankfully, crises often spark creativity and determined effort, and as a result numerous experiments and innovations have developed to address both situations.

In the fall of 2021, the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project (DJP) was launched as an explicit effort to explore how civic organizations dedicated to supporting the local community and those focused on local journalism could work together to reimagine our local information ecosystems and take on the dual challenges. Initially sparked by a grant from the American Press Institute, the project is a collaborative effort that involves a growing list of organizations….

Link:

Fall 2022: Volume 111, Number 3