To start a campaign to improve the media in your community, it's important to find out what people are concerned about. Also, it is important to know who owns your local media, and if they are doing a good job. These tools can help you find out how the local media are doing and what kinds of changes are needed.
- Who owns the media where you live? Just put in your zip code and Center for Public Integrity's Media Tracker will show you who owns the media where you live.
- Grade your local news. Monitor your local news to see if they are really covering issues that matter. You can use the results in letters to the station, protests, license challenges, press releases and other activist efforts to demand better journalism. The model "scorecard" and "guide to socially responsible journalism" from the San Francisco-area "Grade the News" project can help.
- What to expect from the press. The Project for Excellence in Journalism lays out what citizens and journalists agree should be the job of real news media.
- What media companies promise. Read news organizations and companies' values, mission statements and pledges, collected by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Monitor the media to see if they are living up to their promises and make some noise if they are not.
- What do your neighbors think? Create a community research project. This community assessment toolkit from the University of Kansas can help you conduct a survey of people in your community or contact local experts to find out about the state of media in your town.
