Portland Media Lab

[Guest post by Abraham Hyatt of Digital Journalism Portland]

We all want quality journalism. And we’re all good at pointing fingers at news outlets in Oregon we think fail at providing that substance. But is it possible for our journalism community as a whole — not just startups or existing publications — to fill that gap? Ron Buel, who helped found Willamette Week, has turned that question into a conference: We Make The Media. Buel wants the event, which takes place on Saturday, to be a sandbox for local journalists who want to explore what it would take to create a nonprofit news entity.

The event isn’t designed to actually create a nonprofit. That will be left to the participants, says Buel. “They undoubtedly will bring in outside resources to help, but there is no “control group” who will carry this forward. Future action will only be taken by conference participants who are committed to act, to carry out the plans made at the conference and approved by the entire group.”

At the conference site, Buel and other organizers have posted a series of papers that look at the need for a new organization, and some of the ways it could be funded. Their rallying cry isn’t anything new to those of us who are already concerned about the loss of enterprise and investigative reporting that’s occuring as traditional news organizations shrink. But their intent isn’t just to inform — it’s to get journalists off their butts and doing something.

The kind of journalist who will get the most out of We Make The Media, says Buel, will be those “who see the larger role that journalism plays in our democracy, holding our corporations and institutions and elected officials accountable — journalists who understand that journalism is the community writing about the community.”

Sign up for We Make The Media here.

Disclosure: I’m one of the conference organizers.