You’re hearing it more and more. There’s something special happening in Portland these days. There’s a groundswell, a number of things coming together, and just a general feeling of momentum around the reinvention of how we both produce and consume media.
To date, it’s been very much of a grassroots effort. Separate people doing their own thing. Or small groups of independent blogs, podcasts, and publications fighting the good fight.
Now, there may be an organization to help. Introducing We Make the Media.
We Make the Media proposes to “build a new community journalism enterprise for the Portland metropolitan region.” And this Saturday, they’re meeting to discuss how that might happen.
Who is pulling all of this together? A team of veteran journalists who have a vested interest in seeing journalism continue to persevere and survive—despite what may be happening in the world of media.
The team shares the perspective that historically, newspapers have been the breeding ground and backbone for journalism that protects our democracy. But the success of the Internet is challenging the traditional advertising-based scaffolding for reporting and journalism, while as yet there is no viable model for financially robust Internet journalism.
If you want to be part of helping organize this organization—or if you’d simply like to teach me to write, so that I don’t compose phrases like that in the future—the conference will be held Saturday, December 21 at the University of Oregon / White Stag building in downtown Portland. The cost to attend is $25.
For more information or to register, visit We Make the Media. Or you can follow @WeMakeTheMedia on Twitter. Or listen to Abraham Hyatt and Dr. Normal discuss We Make the Media on a recent Crazy Talk, below.
(Image courtesy ShironekoEuro. Used under Creative Commons.)
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I’m all for a non-profit to help startup journalism efforts blossom, but I am so sick of hearing that the answer to journalism itself is to go non-profit. It is a cop out to me…things changed and no one wants to do what it takes to innovate and find a business model. So many want to take the easy way out and go non-prof. That isn’t the answer.