**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

Journalism professor and author Dan Kennedy will discuss his new book, What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate, which serves as a groundbreaking study of the journalism startups that are solving the local news crisis one community at a time. Local news is essential to democracy. Meaningful participation in civic life is impossible without it. However, local news is in crisis. According to one widely cited study, some 2,500 newspapers have closed over the last generation. And it is often marginalized communities of color who have been left without the day-to-day journalism they need to govern themselves in a democracy. Kennedy, and his co-author Ellen Clegg, cut through the pessimism surrounding this issue, showing readers that new, innovative journalism models are popping up across the country to fill news deserts and empower communities. Dan Kennedy is a professor in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University and a nationally known media commentator. He was a panelist on the GBH News television program Beat the Press (1998–2021) and also served as a weekly columnist for the network. Dan is a recipient of the Yankee Quill Award from the New England Academy of Journalists and the James W. Carey Journalism Award from the Media Ecology Association. Learn more and Dan and Ellen's book and podcast HERE.

Register directly on Zoom HERE. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

RECORDING NOTE: This program will NOT be recorded. Viewers must attend live to watch.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTE: The Tewksbury Public Library does not discriminate on the basis of disability and is committed to providing a reasonable modification to participate in our events, services or documentation. Contact Director Diane Giarrusso at 978-640-4490 or dgiarrusso@tewksbury-ma.gov at least two weeks before an event to arrange for modification, or at any time you need accessible documents.