Journalism and the idea of community without borders

Amidst all the recent coverage chronicling the death of traditional news media, Robert Niles at OJR pegs the failure of newspapers to actively and respectufully engage with and report on communities as one of the major factors contributing to their demise. More importantly, Niles knows that “communities” means more than just a geographical neighborhood.

That’s a liberating moment: when you realize that journalism is not the business of reporting, writing and publishing newspapers… or websites. It’s the business of community building. And to do that, you must build your publication’s community from within the broader geographical, topical or professional community that you wish to serve.

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