Eight: Could Libraries and Journalists Host Digital Spaces Together?
Could Libraries and journalists work together to host digital public spaces?
One other potential point of collaboration is in digital public spaces like local listservs and forums. Often newsrooms are active in these spaces. What would it look like for libraries to be active in them, or to host them?
- Vermont’s Front Porch Forum is a promising example.
- New Public, which recently joined the News Futures coalition, is working on creating better digital public spaces.
“Are librarians active in neighborhood listservs? Or could there be one that has librarians and local news workers managing it? Is there some kind of digital space equivalent to people showing up at the library to participate in whatever the news collaboration project is, that could be an engaged and trusted space? We talk a lot about in-person community events as key points for connection, but of course we’re also very much reachable online. I live in my neighborhood listserv. There have been many examples over the years of journalists successfully engaging online communities for their reporting, and it’s an opportunity to consider for any library-local news collaboration.”
– Karolle Rabarison
“What we’re really talking about is it’d be cool if people talk with each other about stuff that’s going on around, and we have access to it. It’s just not, it’s not anything more complicated or difficult than that. And, you know, the Internet was meant to facilitate that and has been also turned into the opposite of it. Right? Into a way to forbid.”
– Maria Bustillos
