Calling for support for Croakey, and other independent media

Introduction by Croakey: As you may have seen, Croakey Health Media is reaching out for support, at a time of financial difficulty for our organisation.

This reflects the challenging funding environment for the media in general, and especially for local and independent publishers like ourselves.

The Local and Independent News Association (LINA) is backing a national fundraising campaign for members this week, as part of wider strategic efforts to grow support for the sector, and to build understanding of the importance of the sector’s work, for informed communities and tackling misinformation and disinformation, as well as for social cohesion and democracy.

Warm thanks to readers who have already donated to the #CroakeyFundingDrive; your commitment to our work means a great deal to us.

Below LINA Executive Director Claire Stuchbery gives an overview of the sector-wide campaign; beneath her article see details of participating publishers.

Claire Stuchbery writes:

Across the globe we’re seeing an increasing level of polarisation in politics. But is that reflective of what’s going on in our communities?

Much of our media landscape would have you think we’re fighting with our neighbours, where the reality for most of us is that we just want to know what’s going on from someone we can trust and we’re quite capable of making rational and logical decisions about the issues that impact our lives from there.

That’s what public interest journalism does. It tells us something about where we live, the topics we care about and the people in our communities. Without it, we’re just people living in the same general area.

News helps us understand each other’s perspectives, when gathered, analysed and summarised under professional editorial standards – things like accuracy, transparency, fairness and accountability.

The International News Media Association (INMA) recently published a piece about the difference between news and journalism that resonates with me in the lead-up to the federal election.

News, it argued, is reporting facts. Journalism provides context.

Journalism is a process that includes verifying information, fact-checking, gathering views and feeding that information back to communities in a manner that helps inform, substantiate, sense-make and sometimes resolve topics that matter to us. It explores nuances and facilitates civic engagement so you can act on issues should you choose to.

That’s why the theme of the national fundraising campaign for the Local & Independent News Association (LINA) is Our News, Your Voice. Croakey Health Media is the news service, but your voice is what matters in the public dialogue.

Growing a movement

LINA member publishers, like Croakey Health Media, are embedded in the communities they serve. Croakey Health Media is part of a movement of 166 newsrooms across the country which collectively share over 2,000 stories per week that would otherwise remain untold.

These are the voices of your community, represented in news media. These are the stories that connect us, reported by people with knowledge of the area because this is what we live and breathe. In a media landscape that’s increasingly syndicated with content produced by centralised services from Sydney, news services informed by subject-matter expertise are particularly valuable.

Right now, newsrooms across the country are providing information on a range of candidates to help voters make informed choices when they head to the polls on Saturday.

The importance of this role has only increased with the proliferation of mis and disinformation, meaning newsrooms are increasingly relied upon to educate audiences in media literacy and act as an antidote to sophisticated campaigns that threaten democratic processes across the globe.

Local and independent journalists are at the front line of this fight, combatting mis and disinformation in communities with verified and reliable news.

It’s no secret that undertaking this work is not for the faint-hearted. Business models sustained by advertising and user fees have weakened globally, while demand for local news content delivered via multimedia channels continues to expand.

Over nine million readers get their news from LINA member publishers each month. Audiences often expect to access news content for free, but journalism is not free to produce. This tension has seen the closure of newsrooms across the country.

Now, newsrooms must call on readers to contribute to their work, after all, it is our news, but it’s your voice that’s represented.

Author details

Claire Stuchbery is Executive Director of the Local & Independent News Association, an industry association supporting digital news publishers to produce high quality public interest journalism for the communities they serve.

Watch this recent interview with her at the LINA Summit, about the role of local and independent publishers in tackling misinformation and disinformation and in developing readers’ media literacy. Also see this article: Media leaders highlight key election health issues for communities.

Participating publishers

See Croakey’s archive of articles on public interest journalism and health