Newspapers Just One Solution for Digital Divide

Commission Sets Goals for Media Literacy, Closing Information Gap

Oct 7, 2009

The role of media in the information age is just one aspect of a new report issued by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

"Doubt there's a digital divide?" asks Chris O'Brien of the San Jose Mercury News in a Twitter post. "Read Knight Commission's report on Informing Communities."

O'Brien is a print journalist, writing about business and technology at the Mercury News, but he has one foot solidly in a part of the news world that has moved online. He is a frequent contributor to his paper's "SiliconBeat" blog, He also spends a good deal of time blogging about the future of news at the Next Newsroom blog.

Media Literacy, Access to Broadband Identified as Needs

Although he often writes about, and participates in the virtual communities that exist online, the Knight Commission's report has reminded O'Brien that real geographic communities still matter; and that many of them are at risk because of a divide between those who have access to quality information and those who do not. For those without broadband access, and those who lack the skills to use it, the digital gap is growing.

This is spelled out in the Knight Commission's report – "Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age." The commission is led by Theodore B. Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States and Marissa Mayer who heads Google's product management and design efforts for search. The report is jointly sponosred by the Aspen Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The report calls for "new thinking about news and information." Among its' fifteen recommendation are a call for:

The report was formally released, with fanfare, Friday, October 2, at a forum held at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The media and policy leaders attending included: Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; Aneesh Chopra, the Obama administration's chief technology officer; Ernest J. Wilson III, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Vivian Schiller, National Public Radio's chief executive; and John Sturm, President of the Newspaper Association of America.

Newspaper Journalists Get a First Look at the Knight Commission's Report

O'Brien called the report "groundbreaking," a comprehensive attempt "to identify the types of information a community needs to not just function, but thrive." What it specifically does not do, said O'Brien, is focus narrowly on "the plight of the traditional media."

Another newspaper journalist, columnist Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, expands on that point in a column announcing the report, Oct. 2. While the commission pays tribute to newspapers, Kurtz notes, it "pointedly fails to offer a strategy for survival," choosing instead to focus on "promoting the traditonal public service functions of journalism" and let others figure out the details.

Said Kurtz : "The report's most sweeping finding is that there is a "broadband gap," a "literacy gap" and a "participation gap" that falls heavily on younger, poorer and more rural Americans."

Learn More About the Commission – Follow it on Twitter, too

In addition to Mayer and Olson, 15 other commission members include recognized leaders from media, public policy and community organizations. Peter M. Shane, an expert in the use of new information technologies to expand democracy, serves as executive director of the commission. Shane is also a law professor at Ohio State University.

The Knight Commission has it's own Website with biographies of its members, and a link to the report itself; there is an easy-to-navigate page for each of its 15 recommendations. The introduction of the report at the Newseum has been re-broadcast on C-Span.

Yet another way to watch how the ideas of the commission develop is to follow the discussion about it at Twitter.com; enter #KnightComm in the search box.

The copyright of the article Newspapers Just One Solution for Digital Divide in Newspaper Journalism is owned by Kathlin F. Sickel. Permission to republish Newspapers Just One Solution for Digital Divide in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.