Josh Stearns

Director, Journalism & Sustainability

Josh Stearns is a journalist and organizer working to build stronger journalism through creativity, community and civic engagement. Stearns is currently the director of Journalism & Sustainability at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation where he is focused on developing a statewide model for a more connected, inclusive, sustainable news ecosystem. Prior to joining the Dodge staff, Josh served as Press Freedom Director at Free Press where he spent 7 years running national advocacy campaigns in support of press freedom, digital rights and media diversity. He is a founding board member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and his articles have appeared online at the Columbia Journalism Review, PBS MediaShift, Orion Magazine and Boing Boing. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jcstearns and subscribe to his weekly newsletter at http://tinyletter.com/jcstearns.

Articles

Building journalism with community starts with building trust

In recent years, the idea that journalists should focus on building the future of news with communities — not just for them — has gained traction. Josh Stearns profiles the work of Jeremy Hay, who has embraced this community-first approach with a local news service in East Palo Alto.

Why we shoud build journalism with community, not for it

Creating in-roads for community participation and giving local people more power to contribute to local journalism is complex and time-intensive. But the end result can be a public that is more engaged in their communities and in supporting news-gathering efforts.