Convening a city to improve its news media
THE BINJ 2018 YEAR-IN-REVIEW
For the first time ever, we did our year-end recap as a video. We hope that you enjoy it, share it, and consider BINJ in your end-of-year giving.
BROKEN MEDIA, BROKEN POLITICS
If Mass journalists were doing their jobs, Baker would not be so popular May 1, 2018 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS It’s always funny to hear that Charlie Baker is a very popular governor… The most popular governor in the country at the moment, according to polls. Because Continue Reading
RETRO POP: LOOKING BACK ON TWO YEARS OF BINJ POP-UP NEWSROOMS
How our nonprofit newsroom starts its listening by popping up where people live and play When summarizing my first two years of running a nonprofit journalism shop in Boston, I often use the spot-on aphorism that necessity is the mother of invention. That’s the best way to explain how, before Continue Reading
PRESS FAIL: AS GE CEO STEPS DOWN, BOSTON JOURNALISTS MUST DO THEIR JOB
June 14, 2017 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS A recent column by the Boston Globe‘s Shirley Leung perfectly encapsulates the problem with local media cheerleading for General Electric’s decision to move its headquarters to Boston. The title alone says it all: “Will GE’s new CEO remain committed to Boston?” Because, like so many Continue Reading
PLAY TO WIN: UK LABOUR PARTY LEADER SHOWS THE AMERICAN LEFT HOW TO MOVE BEYOND SYMBOLIC POLITICS
September 29, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Last week—as is the case many weeks every fall and spring in Boston—notices of small scripted protests by an array of area progressive nonprofits, unions, and student groups got me thinking about the rut the anti-corporate American left has been stuck in for Continue Reading
CABLE JEOPARDY
August 22, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Now that broadband internet is a public utility, both cable companies and telephone companies need to pay for public access television — not try to defund it Last week, the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) was pleased to welcome the Alliance for Community Media Continue Reading
A WORSE FATE THAN GLOBAL WARMING
August 9, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS The return of the nuclear arms race requires the revival of the disarmament movement “It is three minutes to midnight.” Young people reading those words probably won’t know what they mean. Folks who were adults when the Cold War ended with the 1991 Continue Reading
PARTY POOPERS: BLUE AND RED STALWARTS SHOULD STOP ATTACKING MINOR PARTY SUPPORTERS
July 30, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS Blue and Red stalwarts should stop attacking minor party supporters for remaining independent—and start debating ideas The quadrennial whinefest has already begun. The RNC and DNC pageants are barely over, the presidential election is still over three months off, and yet major party Continue Reading
MEDICINE FOR A MENDICANT MEDIA: Government support can revive American journalism
July 25, 2016 BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS [Note: This is the full version of this article. A shorter version ran in the print edition of DigBoston— also dated July 25, 2016.] Journalism is in a tough spot. There are tens of thousands of trained journalists in the United States, but a dearth Continue Reading