Building the Future of Community Journalism 2018 was a day filled with positivity, inspiration and hope for a sector of the media that is far too often disregarded. We learned some valuable lessons about the importance of local journalism, how it can help empower and arguably save lives; how being in touch with communities and opening a dialogue with underrepresented groups has huge benefits for democracy and social cohesion; and how, if done right, it can breed trust and collaboration.
Among the connections we built as individual publishers, we discovered challenges akin to our own, issues and obstacles and the different methods many are taking to tackle them; we heard of innovations and learned about new techniques; were inspired and shocked by facts and case studies; and hopefully, went away with a new-found belief that hyperlocalism, that much-lauded yet out-of-fashion term that blossomed in the late noughties, was still very much alive and kicking, and had a lot more yet to offer.
We were very lucky to have the individual talks, and overall theme, recorded by Caroline Chapple of Scarlet Design Group, who created a fantastic piece of art that embodied the positivity of the day.
With a little photoshop magic, we have separated each talk into individual images for you to explore.
Please feel free to reuse these images for reference to this event. Please credit Scarlet Design Group (@ScarletDesignGr).
You can find a high-res version of the full map at the end of the article.
