Knight Chair Issues Call for Interdependent Newspapers

In the second major address of today's daylong conversation on community journalism, one former newspaper editor challenged those attending today's conversation to look for new ways to be interdependent with their communities.

"A newspaper can't really be independent until it become interdependent with the community it serves, said Peggy Kuhr, Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and the Community at the University of Kansas.

Unlike the previous presentations, Kuhr focused much of her address toward those journalism professors and students attending today's event. From turning students on to community as a source for stories to showing them the power of residents in a community to speak to an issue, Kuhr suggested a different strategy that those teaching journalism can use.

She previewed a soon-to-be released web site on which she and Ken Harwood are working that will go live next year. Covering Communities.org will be a resource for showing journalists and journalism students real strategies for the type of community-based reporting that fosters interdependence.

Kuhr also gave a list of three things those in the audience could do to foster interdependence:

1) Connect with expert listerners in your community
2) Join the Credibility Roundtable Project
3) Develop relationships with those on your campus