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An initiative submitted by Newry.ie that will harness the power of AI to revitalise local public interest news in Newry has been selected as one of the first two projects to be supported by the Public Interest News Foundation's groundbreaking Local News Fund for Newry.
The Fund was inspired by the Local News Plan for Newry, which PINF facilitated in the city 2022-23 as part of a UK-wide project. In the Local News Plan, community members highlighted the need for local news to do more to engage younger residents, whilst continuing to sustain investigative and watchdog reporting.
Across the UK, local news ecosystems are threatened by economic, social and technological disruption. In Newry, something is being done about that, thanks to the generous support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the involvement of the local community.
The Newry.ie project supported by the fund is an AI-powered platform to revitalise local public interest news in Newry by enhancing media and citizen access to local government information.
The AI project is a collaboration between Newry Data Scientist Brian Cleland and Newry.ie Editor Columba O'Hare and aims to make it easier to produce stories based around local government matters.
Columba explains: "Like many communities, Newry has seen a decline in investigative and in-depth local news coverage. Our project aims to reverse this trend by leveraging technology to make local journalism more viable and impactful. The AI-powered platform we're developing will significantly reduce the time and resources required for journalists to access and analyse local government documents and allow reporters to deliver more in-depth investigative journalism and storytelling."
In October Newry.ie were one of around 50 local news outlets at the 2024 PINF Indie News Forum in Glasgow.
The Local News Fund, led by PINF associate Sameer Padania was announced back in May of this year. Explaining the importance of the project Sameer said: "We’re seeing a renewed focus on the health of local journalism, which we hope will unlock much-needed improvements in policy, funding and financing for local media. With this announcement from the Local News Fund for Newry, we’re excited to share this model for other funders and communities across the UK to take up, adapt and kickstart change."
The second project supported aims to empower young people to create their own journalism in tandem with existing media and under the guidance of a Youth Journalism Manager, Kayley Curtis: "This project will combine the two dominant issues from community consultations on Newry’s local journalism landscape: lack of opportunities for young people and over-stretched and underfunded local media. The young people will gain hands-on experience of producing content, providing the much sought after work experience required to pursue the next step in their education or journalism careers. The local media, moreover, will have access to additional content at little additional time or cost, thus helping to alleviate some of their current pressures."
Check out PINF at www.publicinterestnews.org.uk
