Assignment: How to pay for news coverage?

The Constitution protects freedom of the press, but covering the news isn’t free.
Your writing assignment – due March 29 – is to explore ways to pay for coverage of the news and issues of public interest. The Internet and digital technology has disrupted traditional business models.
American newspapers traditionally provided most coverage of local government and community issues. But more than 40,000 people who once worked at newspapers have lost their jobs or taken buyouts since 2007. News coverage – from local to international -has diminished. Many newspapers have closed foreign bureaus.

Love Your Planet 2013

Freshman Tony Lanza speaks during the “Sustainability Soapbox” at Flagler College

Flagler College students, faculty and residents of St. Augustine took part Monday in Love Your Planet 2013, an event aimed at promoting environmental sustainability.

Students listen as Lanza speaks.

The college’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, or SPJ, set up a “Sustainability Soapbox,” a way for students to air any concerns they might have about the environment, social equity or the economy.
Speakers included Tony Lanza, 18, who cited the importance of balancing economic and environmental priorities.
“There is a collective memory of what the environment is supposed to be,” said Lanza, a freshman who is majoring in psychology. What’s needed, he said, is a compromise between the forces of development and those of environmental sustainability.

Environmental sustainability requires compromise, Lanza said.

Dr. Helena Särkiö, left, with Dr. Kristine Warrenburg Rome.

Dr. Helena Särkiö, an associate professor in the Communication Department, managed the “Sustainability Soapbox.” Other members of the Communication Department who took part in Love Your Planet included Kristine Warrenburg Rome, chair of the college’s Faculty Senate Sustainability Committee. See more photos.