I’ve run !independent_news@lemmy.today for a few months now, along with newly associated !indy_news_canada@sh.itjust.works — because I’m Canadian.

Now, I’d like to gage interest in an idea. It would be neat if every country had their own independent journalism community, aggregated by and partnered with Independent News where everything will be cross-posted. I’m currently doing this with Indy News Canada.

My goal is to expose the fediverse to more diverse, trustworthy journalism which isn’t beholden to major corporate interests.

I’m an English/French(ish) speaker in North America, which limits my media diet, so I would love to see more dedicated indy journalism hubs for other countries and regions. I just can’t run them, and shouldn’t, since I’m not local to those regions and can’t match experience to their issues.

If you agree and would like to start a community for independent news in your country or region, let’s talk!

P.S. My communities are english and english/french only, I can’t moderate posts in a language I don’t understand. But! I’ll open up Independent News to cross-posting if non-english/french posts are being reviewed by someone who speaks the language.

  • ambitiousslab@feddit.ukEnglish
    41·
    3 hours ago

    I like the idea and also want to support independent journalism, but in the UK context, I don’t think a separate community makes sense. I had a look at !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk and I think most (70%+) of the posts from my unscientific sample would count as independent (in the sense of “free from government and corporate interests, and not controlled by a major media conglomerate”).

    I wonder if it would make sense to set up a bot to automatically crosspost articles from allowlisted domains from these general news communities? And if unknown links were found, there could be a mechanism to add them to the allowlist?

    These were the sources I found:

    • The Guardian
    • Al Jazeera
    • Novara Media
    • The Canary
    • Socialist Worker
    • Morning Star
    • Democracy for Sale
    • BBC
    • Politics Joe
    • ITV
    • New York Post
    • Metro
    • The National
    • Associated Press
    • Big Issue
    • London on the Inside

    A lot depends on the definition of independent, and I’m focused on the text rather than perhaps the intent of the definition. If that was stronger, a lot of these could be excluded and a separate community might make more sense.