Seven: Library Futures Can Lead Libraries in Supporting Local News
Library Futures can lead libraries in advocating for policies that sustain local news.
Libraries face pressure from some of the same forces that have decimated local news (i.e. private-equity firms). Recognizing this shared struggle is a first step to advocating for alternative strategies for funding and organizing the work of both institutions.
- Library Futures, specifically, can advocate for and sign on to public policies that create sustainable avenues for community journalism. They can make clear that the crisis in journalism is a library issue because current mainstream news outlets are not meeting the information needs of their communities.
- One media reform LF could support in the near term is “replanting”, which has been proposed by Rebuild Local News. These are a set of proposed laws aimed at allowing communities to take control of dying local newspapers.
“Thousands of local newspapers have closed in the last 20 years, and I can’t really think of anything that’s comparable. Maybe the closing of malls? But I really can’t think of anything that’s comparable in modern day media to rival what is going on in news. And you can point fingers in a lot of different directions, largely private equity and conglomerates. But I also think that, as horrible as it is, it is also an opportunity for us to make a media of our own choosing.”
– Jennie Rose Halperin
“The things that matter the most have been correctly identified by our enemies as a problem. Journalism, librarianship, teaching, art. These are sort of central areas where free thinking people associate and exchange ideas. And so, like ‘Girl, you in danger’ as they say.”
– Maria Bustillos
