Photo by William Craine
The communications department invited Louise Kiernan, editor-in-chief for ProPublica Illinois, to share her experiences as an investigative journalist for the university’s annual Robison Lecture on Tuesday night.
Kiernan told audience members at Bradley that journalism today faces three main challenges: to survive, to be heard and to be believed. If a news outlet cannot overcome those challenges, it will fail.
“In Illinois there were once more than 1,000 newspapers. There are now less than half that,” Kiernan said.
Despite this, Kiernan offered optimistic solutions to help combat the malaise many journalists around the world currently face. One of the first steps the non-profit took was establishing an office in Chicago.
“There are a lot of good investigative stories to do [in Illinois],” Kiernan said. “We were looking for a place where there was still a strong enough media ecosystem where we could partner with other media organizations to do work.”
Since ProPublica Illinois opened its doors last October, Kiernan and her staff have reported on diversity in state FBI offices, Cook County law enforcement and Chicago’s property tax system.
“Our mission here is to produce journalism that makes the state we live in a better place to live – to contribute and spread the media ecosystem, and to help build a body of work and create a community of journalists that better reflects the world we live in,” Kiernan said.
For Peoria community member Danila McAsey, Kiernan’s outlook on the future of journalism is something she’s skeptical about.
“I have some concerns that with the proliferation of misinformation in such a titanic measure that truth is going to have a hard time of making its way to the top and staying there,” McAsey said. “I guess I’m heartened by the fact that she is optimistic.”
Sara Netzley, associate professor of journalism and member of the Robison Lecture selection committee, said she was particularly excited to hear Kiernan’s experiences shared with audience members last night.
“She is an interesting mix of academic and professional, and I think that came through in her comments,” Netzley said. “You could tell she knows how to inform a crowd and make her point very clearly, but she has the working professional experience that is so invaluable. She’s in the trenches, she sees what’s happening.”
Lisa McSherry, a Peoria community member, said she heard about the event because she lives minutes from campus.
“I wanted [my daughter] to see a successful woman,” McSherry, who brought her 14-year old daughter Adeline, said.
It’s McSherry and Ferolo’s opinions that prove to Netzley why Kiernan was the right person to invite.
“It’s hard, because the truth is, newsrooms are shrinking, and it is tougher to find, particularly mainstream media [and] legacy media jobs, and I imagine it’s a little scary for people facing graduation,” Netzley said. “But I do think [Kiernan] offered glimmers of hope.”
To end her speech, Kiernan offered one last “glimmer of hope” for the audience.
“Those of you who are students and who look out on the world of journalism and don’t see a home for you or for what you care about or for a community that you identify with, build it. Because if there’s a need for it, it’ll succeed,” Kiernan said.
