In journalism conversations, there is a lot of concern about the need for a public square, a place in which a community can learn and share a common set of facts. It’s something I’ve talked about in research from the Knight Foundation. The concern of filter bubble, in which the personalization of the web allows [...]

I’ve been asked a dozen times in the past few weeks what it takes to develop communities on the Web. There isn’t any scientific response, but I’ve started thinking about four Cs that come to mind. Connection — Whether it’s a geographic or topical vertical, or one strictly based around a product, organization or experience, [...]

Community newspapers in Philadelphia remain wary of the Web, if any stock is to be paid to a morning panel from a journalism innovation conference held this month at Temple University. Their thoughts just might be relevant to community-focused news gathers across the country. Hosted by Temple’s journalism department, the Philadelphia Initiative for Journalistic Innovation [...]

I live in Frankford, an old neighborhood in lower Northeast Philadelphia. Community journalism – the important and perhaps least paying element of the craft – is something I cherish and, as I understand it, begins, funny enough, in your own community. So when I moved here back in November, I was excited to discover and [...]