Local news: It’s how people are informed about what’s happening in their communities, it’s what gets them to care about their communities, and it’s what gets local governments in turn to care for the communities they represent. When accountability journalism disintegrates at the local level, all of this topples, and the consequences of a news desert can cascade up to the national level.
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, with funding from the Abrams Foundation, will support up to three fellowships next year for U.S. journalists working in local news, with the aim of improving the health of the local investigative journalism ecosystem in the U.S. (The Abrams Foundation, among its many program areas, has supported recent journalism initiatives such as Frontline’s new longform documentary podcast series.)
Abrams Nieman Fellows will spend two full semesters at Harvard, followed immediately by a period of up to nine months working in the field on an…
