media Archives

Prototype "Medville Transnal" front page. Collage by Jason Pramas.

EDITORIAL: MEDIA CONSOLIDATION ACCELERATES IN SOMERVILLE

Gannett merges its Somerville Journal and Medford Transcript newspapers as BINJ’s Somerville News Garden project and the Somerville Media Center launch a new municipal foundation to fund local journalism Nearly three years ago, after hosting a community forum on the crisis in local journalism attended by 115 residents of Somerville,

JASON PRAMAS March 22, 2022

WHAT IS THE SOMERVILLE WIRE?

BINJ staff and Somerville News Garden volunteers have not undertaken this effort to compete with existing or future news outlets in Somerville. We are simply working on creating a replicable model that cities and towns around Massachusetts and the US can use to stop their municipalities from turning into “news deserts,” in the parlance of journalism academics.

JASON PRAMAS February 23, 2021

WHAT ARE WE MISSING? JOIN US FOR A PANEL ABOUT MEDIA COVERAGE OF POLICE VIOLENCE

What well-documented history is often left out? And why?

BINJ ONLINE July 3, 2020

SOMERVILLE NEWS GARDEN MOVING FORWARD

Launching new programs to help revive local journalism It has been just over a year since my Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and DigBoston colleagues and I organized the Somerville Community Summit to give area residents a chance to speak for two minutes each to 15 journalists about what

JASON PRAMAS March 4, 2020

ACCESS DENIED: BUTTIGIEG PACKS ROOM, BRUISES INDEPENDENT MEDIA EGOS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

Through the fog of nobodies, MSNBC show host and hoagie hound Chris Matthews managed to get access; “Just hang on,” he whispered in his trademark brassy brogue to the minion flanking his effort, “she’ll get us in.”

DAN MCCARTHY February 6, 2020

ACKNOWLEDGING SOME BRIGHT SPOTS ON THE DARKENING MASS MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Though the response was mostly positive, however cloaked in sadness, there were also criticisms, and for the most part I agree with complaints about how I neglected to identify those working hard to hydrate news deserts and who are launching ambitious hyperlocal startups and hustling between the gaps.

CHRIS FARAONE November 6, 2019

BINJ CO-PUBLISHES FIRST FEATURE IN CHINESE

We are excited to announce that one of our recent features, “Unbearable Pressure: For members of the Asian LGBTQ community, Boston can be solid ground for personal discovery and advocacy. Still, some stories remain untold,” has also been published by Sampan, the only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

BINJ ONLINE August 18, 2019

HELP BINJ BRING ITS POP-UP NEWSROOM BACK TO MANCHESTER FOR THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY

Independent journalists from BINJ, DigBoston, and several other sites and papers will use the facilities, which we first conceived as an alternative to the hotel across the street where journalists from bigs like CBS and CNN enjoyed cozy press accommodations while the rest of us sat on the carpet in the lobby and fought over electrical outlets.

CHRIS FARAONE July 26, 2019

WHY WE’RE HELPING BUILD JOURNALISM NONPROFITS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY

“The public benefited, too, from the much greater availability of new visions and values, which broadened the political, cultural, and spiritual options of millions”

BINJ ONLINE July 21, 2019

BINJ WINS AWARDS FOR POLITICAL COLUMN AND FIRST AMENDMENT JOURNALISM

We also had the honor of giving out a prize of our own, the “BINJ Award,” which we sponsored to acknowledge the “Best Nonprofit Collaboration.”

BINJ ONLINE July 21, 2019