Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism (FORJournalism): Teaching media literacy to the next generation of Oregon journalists

Let’s not just react to the right-now problem. But also, how do we feed the pipeline? How do we deal with misinformation and teach media literacy? How do we inspire this next generation of journalists? So that’s where we came up with the Future Journalists of America.”

Jody Lawrence-Turner, executive director, Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism (FORJournalism)

A young Oregon nonprofit group is sowing journalism seeds in an expanding news desert.

Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism (FORJournalism) was founded by EO Media Group three years ago. The nonprofit's mission is to help stabilize, sustain and grow rural newspapers through its three innovative programs: Future Journalists of America™, Oregon Journalism Resource Center and journalism labs. 

According to FORJournalism’s website, more than a third of Oregon’s small-town newspapers have closed, and 68% of Oregon's incorporated cities have no local news source.

Among its priorities is training young people — most in high school — through its Future Journalists of America program. Youth learn about the tenets of journalism and journalism literacy in the paid internship program, so a new generation of journalists can chip in at small rural newspapers that need help and more students are inspired to consider journalism as a college major.

As the organization set priorities for solutions to the vanishing journalism landscape in Oregon, the FORJ leadership started with basics, said Jody Lawrence-Turner, the executive director.

“Let’s not just react to the right-now problem,” she said. “But also, how do we feed the pipeline? How do we deal with misinformation and teach media literacy? How do we inspire this next generation of journalists? So that’s where we came up with the Future Journalists of America.”

The program brought students into nearby newsrooms for training once a week “so they’re focused on truth and fact-based journalism, and then in those smaller communities, we can use that workforce training to help publishers get content, which they’re starved for.”

The students learn the basics through the training and are paired with newspapers to cover basic assignments. Lawrence-Turner said that not all of the intern’s interests were focused on reporting. Some students were interested in videography or website design.

The program also initiated conversations about audience engagement. Lawrence-Turner said it’s important for young journalists to understand why they’re writing stories, not just how to write them. Using data to understand a community’s interest is a topic they discuss.

FORJournalism also works with rural publishers as part of its Journalism Resource Center, including using the Earn Your Press Pass program through Kansas Publishing Ventures to train interns and community journalists. The Earn Your Press Pass is an online training course that teaches how to report and write stories.

The nonprofit also helps with digital transitions, technology, recruiting interns, coordinating collaborations and training. Last month, FORJ hosted the second annual day-long Oregon Rural Journalism Conference in Redmond to a sold-out group of young journalists.  

“I’ve been working with Jody for a couple of years now,” said Daniel Mancuso, editor and publisher of the Illinois Valley News, a small, 12-page weekly newspaper in Cave Junction, Oregon. “I finally have a website because of her. She just got a lot of little things done for me, guiding me on some things. They’ll pay the interns. And I actually chose two kids from our local high school. I’m paying one on my own, and he’s going to college pretty soon. The other one — she’ll be a sophomore in high school. She has a decent ability to write. The Fund will pay her $15 an hour, up to $3,000.”

If things go well with the intern program, the student could spend nearly three years working at the newspaper.

Mancuso said finding writers is a difficult job at a rural weekly. He said freelancers often turn down stories or inject their biases when tackling certain stories. Having trained, paid interns will help his operation, he said.

Mancuso added that the FORJournalism organization has been a big help in taking some of the administrative work off his plate. More than that, the organization has offered support where there was very little before.

“We’re a hole out here that nobody seems to care about,” he said. “A lot of us little newspapers, we don’t have the money, and we don’t have the time to reach out and do a lot of these things. It’s been so helpful having somebody that cares about small weekly newspapers.”

Bob Miller has spent more than 25 years in local newsrooms, including 12 years as an executive editor with Rust Communications. Bob also produces an independent true crime investigative podcast called The Lawless Files.