Jessica Durkin: All Related Content

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Taking a news census: Group’s database helps visualize scope of information ecosystem

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
March 10, 2011

Early last year I participated in a Journalism that Matters conference in Seattle. From what I learned there, I focused on creating an information ecology of Seattle as part of work related to the FCC Future of Media enquiry.

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Media Policy and the Digital Future: In the Shadow of Bigness

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
December 2, 2010

Each day as we log on to the Internet, use our cell phones for more than just talking, watch television, and connect on social networks, we are part of a small group of giants.

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Media policy and the online community news start-up

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
October 1, 2010

I attended the Block-by-Block Community News Summit in Chicago on Sept. 24, an event sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute, where I spoke to hyper-local and community news start-up founders about policy issues they are facing in journalism's digital age. Below is a summary of the issues, followed by the founders' comments. 

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Community News Start-Ups 2010: Where do we go from here?

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
September 23, 2010
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It’s a good thing for community news start-ups that the web is not dead.

Indeed, for the more than 100 online community news founders, innovators and researchers expected at the RJI Reynolds Block by Block Community News Summit in Chicago on Friday, the web is the future.
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Room on the Dial: Group Wants Community Radio in Scranton

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
August 21, 2010
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Scranton, Pa. — The FCC has granted Scranton a grassroots opportunity.

Armed with a temporary radio construction permit and guided by the Prometheus Radio Project, local non-profit organization Community Radio Collective, Inc. plans to launch full-power FM station WFTE 90.3 and they have five months to do it.

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Across the Spectrum: Broad Interpretations of Serving the Public Interest in Scranton

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
  • Tom Glaisyer
July 1, 2010

“When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.  But when television is bad, nothing is worse.” - Newton Minow 1961, Television and the Public Interest.

In 1961 Newton Minow, then-chairman of the FCC, used those words in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) soon after his appointment to highlight the public interest obligation of broadcasters.

By acquiring spectrum without paying a fee, broadcasters have long held special privileges over others who use the nation’s airwaves. In exchange for spectrum licenses, broadcasters must fulfill certain public interest obligations. While the terms of such obligations have evolved over time, today’s television and radio stations are expected to serve the public interest by providing relevant, timely community service information to their audiences.

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From Scranton to Seattle: A Contrast in Modern News Media Environments

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
May 18, 2010
Photo credit: tomdobb

Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Seattle, Washington, have little in common.  Scranton is landlocked, tucked in a valley 120 miles away from the nearest major city in the Northeast, with a population of approximately 73,000. Seattle, three time zones to the west, is on the Pacific coast and has eight times the population of Scranton.

Scranton's population is half of what it was in 1940; the Seattle population has nearly doubled in that time. Seattle is younger and more ethnically diverse than Scranton, and its residents are higher paid. 

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How ‘healthy’ is Scranton’s community news and information system?

  • By
  • Jessica Durkin
March 8, 2010
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[Note: This post is one of a series that will document Scranton’s information ecosystem and how it is changing.]

Scranton, PA – One of the tests for an informed public advanced by the Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy is: Does the community have at least one high-quality online hub?

Until 2009, the newspaper of record here avoided the drastic cuts already underway or completed in other metro area, and each of the three major commercial television networks aired local news. But by spring, the family-owned Scranton Times-Tribune would reduce its staff by 15 percent through buyouts and layoffs (I was among those laid off), and CBS affiliate WYOU replaced its lagging local newscasts with Judge Judy and Hollywood Insider.

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