When people first started talking about "community journalism," it implied journalism as practiced by non-professionals, with a potential to usurp the work journalism professionals. It becomes clearer over time that more members of communities, especially smaller communities, will have to step up and report the news, because so many local news operations are strapped, hollowed out, or just out of business.
Ashland.news sprang up to take the place of the dead Daily Tidings, and now it is helping train community journalists through the OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) program at Southern Oregon University. Class participants go beyond the classroom, using what they learn to produce stories for Ashland.news, in words and pictures.
We hear more about the class and its objectives from co-instructors Bert Etling and Paul Steinle. Steinle is a longtime journalist and teacher, board president at Ashland.news, Etling is the current Executive Editor of Ashland.News.