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Today’s Agenda

9:00am – 10:00am What is the Local News Impact Consortium?

10:00am – Noon BREAKOUT SESSIONS I

Noon – 12:30pm Report back/Discussion

12:30pm – 1:30pm Lunch

1:30pm – 3:30pm BREAKOUT SESSIONS II

3:30pm – 4:00pm Report back/Discussion

4:00pm – 4:30pm Wrap-up & Next Steps

5:00pm – Informal Social at Malcolm Yards

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What is the Local News Impact Consortium?

Building momentum from our convening in Durham…

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Collective problems with different entry points

What are the public’s information needs?

How does this work happen?

What does the supply of local news look like at the content level?

Local News Impact Consortium

What does the supply of local news look like at the outlet level?

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What’s the solution?

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Defining the scope of collaboration?

Building a centralized repository for local news data?

Creating more uniform research standards (e.g., shared codebooks, computational tools)?

Developing a research infrastructure to provide resources, training, toolkits to facilitate research?

Opportunities for more information sharing across research communities?

Matching funders and stakeholders to local research expertise? Making this community visible…

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What is the Local News Impact Consortium?

What do we imagine could be possible?

in 3-5 years and beyond…

in 1 year…

in six months…

What needs to happen to make that a reality?

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Goals for today

Make more progress around collaboration in these areas beyond simply creating space/structure for dialogue
Work toward developing a proposal for a concrete structure for the consortium moving forward

Develop specific, actionable next steps to collectively get us from here to there

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Developing Working Groups

What are the public’s information needs?

Audience research
Closing the loop with news orgs & the public

How does this work happen?

Coordination, training, & funding
Events and workshops?

What does the supply of local news look like at the content level?

Content collection
Content analysis

Local News Impact Consortium

What does the supply of local news look like at the outlet level?

Database building
Employment landscape?

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Breakout sessions I

News Content Collection Methods

Coffman 319 – Matt/Damon

News Audience Research Methods� Coffman 323 – Ben/Jesse
News Outlet Database Building Methods� Coffman 326 – Stephanie/Regina

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Questions to ask

What are the goals/benefits of an effective collaboration?
What documents or data need to be created / standardized?
What could be achieved in 6 months, 1 year - 2 years?
Who is available to meet regularly through the fall? (Including people not in the room)

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Breakout session tasks

Identify concrete outputs:

For example: “how to” guides for different stakeholders, draft codebooks, interview guides, recommendations

Develop a plan for how a working group could tackle these objectives

Timeline, responsibilities, etc.
What resources (time, funding?) would the working group need?

Get started on the work itself?

For example: what are the right variables to be collecting?

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Report back

What are the needs/goals identified?
What is the plan going forward?
Who is doing what?
Questions/Feedback

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News Content Collection - Report Back

What are the needs/goals identified?

Standards for data collection

What do we collect (online data)
What about radio and television content? advertising?
Sampling approach - monthly weekly daily?

Standardization of data sharing / collection

Example: WARC as an ISO Standard
Standardization is the key link (URLs- > Data Collection -> Analysis)

Geographic coverage (depth vs. breadth) and need local expertise

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News Content Collection - Report Back

What is the plan going forward

Preliminary standards document (1-2 page document)
Scope / scale testing (data sampling approach - daily vs. weekly vs. monthly)

Impact on analysis (critical information needs)
Distribution of bylines
Geographic coverage (geolocation)

Testing a content collection approach

PressForward community (small) that wants to begin an ecosystem analysis
We collect the data & hand off - what’s missing / what are the gaps?

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Breakout sessions II

News Content Analysis Methods

Coffman 319 – Damon/Matt

Closing the Loop with News Organizations and the Public � Coffman 323 – Jessica/Chase
Coordination, Training, and Funding� Coffman 326 – Anna/Ben

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Shared drive for notes / files

https://bit.ly/LNICgroups

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Report back

What are the needs/goals identified?
What is the plan going forward?
Who is doing what?
Questions/Feedback

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Ecosystem studies - PDFs

https://bit.ly/LNICecosystems

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Wrap-Up

Larger takeaways and feedback?
Where do we go from here?

Next Steps

Assigning working group leaders, including in areas not covered today
What are the 3 things you can do between now and our next convening in August?
Website development, setting up communication infrastructure

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Next 6 - 12 months?

Formalize core governance

Leadership group + possible advisory board

Establish a website for LNIC (Matt checking w/ RU RA to do this)

Communication channels - slack & email listserv

Create a literature database (RA?)
Continue to build a census of local news mapping projects (RA?)
Establish a prototype database for local news URLs (working group - Regina/Ben)

Data structure / core variables
What’s included - excluded may be a separate conversation (!!)

Clearinghouse of datasets/instruments (working group - Ben/Jesse)
Prototype content collection w/ PressForward community (working group - Matt/Damon)
“science of local news” article !

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Plan for Future Meetings

Informal gatherings? � @ ICA, June 2024, Gold Coast, Australia� @ APSA, September 2024, Philadelphia, PA

AEJMC, August 8-11, 2024, Philadelphia, PA
ONA, September 18-21, 2024, Atlanta, GA
TBD, Spring 2025, Chicago, IL

Others that should be on this list?
Balance of larger meetings vs. working group meetings?

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