(Image: [[https://yewtu.be/YxIhT-Q7FU4|https://yewtu.be/YxIhT-Q7FU4)]]Chicago's News Landscape Transitioning From Print to Digital Local news agencies have found innovative ways to adapt their coverage of national crises. Even successful news outlets struggle against the array of new online sources.
They often focus on niche topics, relying on social media to distribute their content. They also experiment with different approaches to community engagement and reporting. This has also created new opportunities, as some writers can monetize through services like Substack. It has also led to a new kind of journalist, one who is not bound to a single publication and can create e-newsletters on any subject.
Digital startups address specific community needs in New York City, for example on the South or West sides. Other startups aim to hold politicians accountable. Some of these experiments receive funding from philanthropy.
The McCormick Foundation is spearheading efforts to enhance local journalism, such as partnering with Chicago-area newsrooms through the Metro Media Lab project to conduct audience research and strategy work. In addition, the Chicago staff of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism collaborated with them in order to improve their skills.
Chicago residents from across all regions reported feeling that news media in their neighborhood could use improvement, with notable regional variations; certain neighborhoods felt under- and misrepresented by mainstream media and there were gaps in coverage of specific issues such as crime and law enforcement.
Chicago news organizations boast a unique news ecosystem. Nonprofit and for-profit news outlets both operate innovative news programs. Some of them are trying to build a relationship between journalists and their communities by working in the neighborhoods they work in and ensuring traditionally underserved community receives coverage both in writing and in voice.
Block Club Chicago published an account about Adam Toledo's police shooting a few months after it occurred; yet they took care to avoid traumatizing readers by not including graphic video footage in their story.
The TRiibe is an online news outlet that is helping build trust in Black Chicago. Three Northwestern University graduates were tired of hermosa chicago news, http://illinoismail.top/, being portrayed in the mainstream media as the “murder capital.” They set out to build an outlet where their community could be heard and also give people ownership over its story. Their efforts are bearing fruit: TRiibe's content has been widely shared across social media, leading to civic engagement initiatives throughout Chicago.