All Over Albany

"Fake News, Real Teens: Problems & Possibilities" at the Albany Public Library

The Albany Public Library and YouthFX have teamed up for a community forum called "Fake News, Real Teens: Problems & Possibilities" this Sunday at the Washington Ave Branch. Blurbage:

[All ages] For this community forum we will take a closer look at how fake news impacts young people, trends in youth access and interaction with news media, and what possibilities can be used or created to help teens better use and influence local media. Through focused breakout sessions and panel discussions led by young people and activists currently working in journalism, we will explore current examples of teens interacting with new media in new and positive ways, closing with an open discussion of concrete next steps we can take here in our community.

This forum will be led by youth journalist Muna Mire and independent journalist and community organizer Rosa Clemente. The discussion will be facilitated by Youth FX Assistant Director and co-founder Darian Henry.

The event poster mentions that Mire and Clemente will be offering examples of "communities taking on news gathering themselves and creating new and positive ways of reporting on current events." And that -- with or without teens (but hopefully with them) -- is an important topic all on its own, especially as traditional news org continue to retract.

There's a lot of information about neighborhoods and communities that circulates now in the form of newsletters, Facebook groups, public meetings, and other outlets that fills some of the information gaps -- for better and, occasionally, for worse. These haven't necessarily always been tagged as "journalism" in the past, but they very often serve a similar function. So maybe we need to change the collective way we think about all this sort of stuff -- and give some thought to how we can all be better listeners, creators, and sharers of information about the places we live.

The forum at the APL is Sunday, December 2 at 1 pm. It's free.