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[ [link removed] ]Free Press Action

Friend,

Amid the fears that many are facing under the second Trump administration — cuts to federal services, skyrocketing costs and threats of mass deportations — people need information about what’s happening in their communities to stay safe.

Corporate consolidation — and a willingness to appease the regime — have severely weakened this nation’s long-standing commercial-media system. Thankfully, there is an emerging civic-media movement forging a new path for local journalism that puts community needs first.

The Media Power Collaborative (MPC) is a space for journalists, academics and organizers to advocate for policies that support civic media across the country. Free Press Action and our partners in the MPC recently hosted a panel discussion to cover how our new policy agenda charts a vision for the future we need to build toward.

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One of our speakers was Mazin Sidahmed, the co-founder of Documented, a nonprofit newsroom that serves immigrant communities in New York City. Documented’s reporters build trust with the communities they serve so people will know they can rely on the information they’re receiving: “The main issue we’re experiencing right now is deep confusion,” he said. “Every week, we’re addressing hundreds of questions around, ‘Am I eligible for deportation?’”

Another speaker, Kate Harloe, is a journalist and member of the Freelance Solidarity Project and the National Writers Union. She is dedicated to the important community organizing work taking place as people fight for the information they deserve: “We can lose the fact that people have demands, they often have highly developed critiques of local news, and they don’t have a lot of ways to communicate that feedback to the organizations producing the news.”

We also heard about media-literacy education from Carla Murphy, a journalist, media organizer and assistant professor at Rutgers University-Newark: “A lot of our electorate has not been educated to keep up with the technological changes that have happened over the last 20 years, and most of us see the ramifications of that.” She included an important reminder for all of us as we continue to discuss, organize and educate: “This work has to be culturally relevant and culturally competent to be effective.”

The need for journalism that portrays activists and dissidents in all their humanity is crucial right now. Recent crackdowns on pro-Palestine students and student journalists heighten the need for a different kind of journalism — one that holds authoritarians accountable. Our final panelist — Candice Fortman, former executive director of Outlier Media and a John S. Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford — reminded us that “Journalism is always advocating for something or someone.”

Passing policies that fund and strengthen civic media is necessary to ensure people have the news and information they need. That’s why we believe in Local News for the People: A Policy Agenda for Meeting Civic-Information Needs.

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Candice Fortman gave us a mantra to guide our work in the months and years ahead: “I have to do my work in the moment, but I have to do my dreaming and building into the future,” Fortman said. “[The future] is going to come, whether you’re prepared for it or not.”

Thanks for your support,

Sarah and the rest of us at Free Press Action

P.S. If you agree that stronger journalism means stronger communities, check out our full discussion! [[link removed]

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