The Knight Community News Network is a self-help portal that guides both ordinary citizens and traditional journalists in launching and responsibly operating community news and information sites.
It consists of resources, research and learning modules created, aggregated and contributed by a network of people launching and studying community news sites.
The site is initiative of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism in Washington, D.C. It was constructed with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to help citizens learn to use digital media to collect and present news that can enrich community and public discourse.
KCNN helps build capacity for citizens who want to start their own news ventures and it opens the doors to citizen participation for traditional news organizations seeking to embrace user-generated content.
KCNN’s learning modules and publications impart both technical skills and core journalism values of accuracy, fairness, and context, qualities that make for responsible and credible journalism.
In addition, KCNN contains the first national database of grants made to nonprofit news initiatives. It also houses one of the earliest databases of community news sites that have launched since 2005, including those that are now inactive.
Community news creators can find more resources at J-Lab’s companion sites:
- J-Lab.org — Publications, speeches, workshops
- J-Learning.org — Tutorials on how to use community publishing software and hardware.
- J-NewVoices.org — A look at startups funded with small grants from J-Lab.
- NewMediaWomen.org — A look at startups led by women media entrepreneurs awarded small grants from J-Lab with McCormick Foundation funding.
KCNN is no longer actively updated. It was archived in 2014, four years after the Knight Foundation wrapped up its support.