Kristen Hare Jairam covers local news innovation for the Poynter Institute. Her work for Poynter has earned her a Mirror Award nomination. Hare, a graduate of the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, spent 5 years as the Sunday features writer and an assistant editor at the St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, and five years as a staff writer covering race, immigration, the census and aging at the St. Louis Beacon. She also spent two years with the Peace Corps in Guyana, South America. Hare and her family live outside Tampa. She’s the author of the book “100 Things to do in Tampa Bay Before You Die.”

1. Newsrooms
are shrinking
Here’s how they’re
finding new ways to hold
governments accountable

2. “Most truths are so naked that people feel
sorry for them and cover them up, at least a
little bit.”
- Edward R. Murrow, who said lots of good
stuff and probably would have been in
favor of Facebook publishing fact checks
(just guessing.)

3. Let’s time travel to 2008

5. Let’s go to 2012 now.

7. And now to 2016...

9. Thank you!!!

10. So here we are in 2018.

13. AND newsrooms in the U.S. are shrinking.

14. But don’t give up on news yet.
Here are three newsrooms that are finding new
ways to cover their local governments.

15. At Mississippi Today, a good, old-fashioned
fact check.

18. How they did it:
1. Divide and conquer.
2. Take your time.
3. Be ready for pushback.

19. The response...

24. “When something that should be as routine
as a factcheck can draw so much vitriol
from the public officials who should be
accountable to the public, it just illustrates
the importance of the work we do every
day.” - Ryan Nave, Mississippi Today

25. At NOWCastSA, “public television on the
internet”

29. “It helped voters gain an awareness of the
candidate’s values, which allowed them to
make a more informed decision.”
-Shelley Kofler, Fort Worth Star
Telegram

31. How they do it
- Partners
- Volunteers and interns
- Full transparency

32. City Bureau hires citizens to document
what’s happening

34. How they do it
1. Give them a lot of ways to get involved
2. Train them
3. Pay them

35. What do all these projects have in common?

36. “Sunlight is said to be the best of
disinfectants, electric light the most
efficient policeman.” - Louis Brandeis

37. Thank you! (I’m at khare@poynter.org and
@kristenhare, say hi!)