Local Journalism Initiative
In some parts of Canada, residents do not have access to journalistic information about community issues and institutions through local newspapers, community radio, television or other news media. These gaps in coverage mean that citizens do not have necessary information about news, issues and events that affect them and their day-to-day lives.
The Local Journalism Initiative aims to change that.

Glossary

Civic journalism: Civic journalism covers the activities of the country’s civic institutions (for example, courthouses, city halls, band councils, school boards, federal Parliament or provincial legislatures) or subjects of public importance to society.

Creative Commons licence: A Creative Commons (CC) licence is one of several public copyright licences that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted “work.” A CC licence is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that he or she (that author) has created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, he or she might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of a given work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author’s work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the licence by which the author distributes the work.

Underserved community:

Communities are considered underserved if they are:

  • News deserts: Communities where citizens do not have access to journalistic information about community issues and institutions because there are no daily or community newspapers and other media (for example, community radio or television). Also, if there are other public or private broadcasters, they do not produce local news.
  • Areas of “news poverty”: Communities where there is limited access to journalistic content about community issues and institutions through a daily or community newspaper or public or private broadcaster. Available sources of local news — whether a newspaper, a community radio station or other media — demonstrate significant gaps in coverage due to a lack of capacity.

Courtesy Canadian Heritage

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This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Government of Canada