J298 Berkeley Changemaker: Creating New Models for Journalism

Psst! Wanna help save democracy?

So first the bad news–the ways that journalism has traditionally been created and published is not working. Legacy news organizations and newer outlets alike are laying people off, and are often chasing technology (and are then in some ways beholden to, say, social media platforms) rather than coming up with their own ways to reach audiences. Now the good–there will always be a need for journalism. The country’s earliest newspapers were created to inform citizens, and seen as an essential part of guaranteeing their freedom. Thomas Jefferson famously wrote: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” And therein lies the opportunity. American journalism was created to serve a select few, and has not done a great job of reaching the very diverse communities across the country in ways that they want to consume news. I believe the future of journalism depends in part on whether we can figure out how to serve everyone in this country, and then create ways to make that news production, dissemination and revenue streams more sustainable. And that’s where you come in.

Over the course of the semester, you will work in teams to do in-depth interviews with people in one of three areas–legacy news organizations, non-profit/local news outlets and audiences (the people these news organizations are trying to reach). You will use what you learn from these interviews to come up with solutions. We will have class guests—newsroom leaders, entrepreneurs and funders–who will help us consider the possibilities: How do we package and share news in ways audiences want to consume it? Do we use existing platforms or come up with something new? And, where do we get the money to make this all sustainable?