Journalism isn’t dead. It’s changing.
Although folks bemoan the demise of conventional media, people still get news about their communities. It’s just not always from “the news.” Instead, they’re turning to community organization newsletters, social media, sound bites, podcasts, or even AI-generated content.
In this environment, we’re still getting information; we’re just getting different information. Consequently, for each of us, our perceptions of our local reality are vastly different.
While this decline in traditional news-reporting is happening – and while partisanship is on the rise – there’s a new community journalism taking hold. You can see it from outlets like The New Bedford Light, Brookline.News, and Block Club Chicago.
You’ll also see it right here in Providence, with the Providence Eye. On a local level, I think that what the Eye offers is as important as conventional journalism.
There are a few reasons for this.
We enhance civic engagement.
The Eye publishes a calendar with events ranging from jazz concerts to neighborhood Trick or Treat activities to City Plan Commission meetings to dance performances. We publish volunteer opportunities and community announcements. If you’re looking for ways to get out and be active in this city, the Eye is the best place to find out about them.
We provide relevancy – the human side – to local issues.
No one cares as much about local issues at the granular level than Providence Eye contributors who live and work in the city. And you can see this in the journalism we publish on education, climate change, politics, the housing crisis, and more. We’re one of the only media outlets to routinely publish coverage of local arts and cultural activities. And, we dig into the details, like Jonathan Howard’s recent feature about the Providence Public School Department’s decade-long capital improvement plan, which looks closely at the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars.
We build trust and connection.
Traditional media outlets tend to lean toward one-way communication. They tell us things, and we either pay attention or we don’t. But, in this age, we need something different – and the Eye provides it. Every week, we publish op-eds from community members on issues they care about. We solicit tips and story ideas. We publish “People in Providence” snapshots from the city’s streets.
We also host community events that bring people together to learn and to connect. In May, we had 150 people show up on a Saturday in May to learn about the Providence port, tour the sewage treatment plant, and visit a part of the city that had been heretofore, pretty invisible. In September, we featured local journalist (and Eye board member) Phil Eil speaking at the Knight Memorial Library about misinformation in the news. And on December 11, we’ll have some of the best story-tellers in the city talking about their experiences in the city.
It’s because of the unique work we do that, after only one year in existence, the Eye received a Press Forward grant for “filling the gaps in local journalism.”
We’ve come a long way – but we aren’t where we want to be.
We need your help raising $100,000 by the end of this year. We have a matching fund and every dollar we raise between now and the end of 2025 will be matched 2:1.
That $100,000 will help us hire a second person. The Eye runs almost entirely by volunteers. As of today, we have only one paid staff person, Dana Schneider, our Director of Audience Development, who started work in January.
That $100,000 will also help us create sustainable revenue, publish even better stories, put on more events, and enlist more volunteer contributors. It will help us to do more of what makes the Eye so special.
The Providence Eye is a community endeavor. And if you’re a member of this community, contributing to Eye helps to build a more informed and empowered city.
Please consider what you can do to help.
Debbie Schimberg is the Founder and Publisher of The Providence Eye, which started publication in 2023. She’s been living in the southside ever since the Cianci days and is proud that she and her husband’s three kids have all settled in Providence, the center of the universe. They also have two grandkids, three chickens, and a big garden.
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