The media as we've known it is changing.

Television is still popular, newspapers arrive on doorsteps and radio broadcasts transmit music or talk shows that take the pulse of the electorate, but the general health of these traditional information formats, combined with shifting consumer habits, raises questions about their role in a wired society.

The newspaper and commercial television business models that rely heavily on advertising are collapsing, and local public broadcaster WVIA and public access station Electric City Television are receiving substantially less funding from their usual noncommercial sources. These changes have led to smaller paid news staffs and less space in media outlets to provide consistent, original news and information to citizens.

The New America Foundation's Media Policy Initiative and the Schemel Forum at the University of Scranton recently hosted a roundtable meeting of 20 community stakeholders from the area, including representatives from the media, nonprofit organizations, the city library, elected officials and private enterprise to consider three questions:

How healthy do you consider Scranton's information community?

What are the challenges for Scranton as we move into an increasingly digital age?

What are the opportunities for Scranton as it thinks about how its individuals and communities are best informed and engaged in the digital age?

Traditional media formats that employ one-to-many communication models have been disrupted. The Internet and the World Wide Web have fundamentally altered how we get our news and information. Finding our news online allows us to decide what we want, when we want it and who to share it with. The Web quickly connects communities and provides a means for self-expression. It builds relationships across geographic divides that normally would be slow to develop, if at all. 

American University's Center for Social Media has identified collaboration, curation, conversation, creation and choice as five social practices that are changing media habits.

Meanwhile, government agencies across the country are moving toward a "2.0" mentality by offering better digital access to records and communicating regularly, directly with communities through blogs, RSS feeds and social media.

In this environment, a plurality of sources report information alongside established outlets - in some instances, as in Seattle, traditional media partner with independent community news startups. Niche publications, in print and online, provide extra coverage on issues uncovered by traditional media.

Broadband access is the lifeline to these new tools. Lackawanna County's metro areas are wired, and the county commissioners in March approved applying for Recovery Act monies to upgrade the county's wireless infrastructure, to ensure widespread connectivity. And Scranton entered Google's Fiber for Communities competition to bring super-high-speed optical fiber to the city.

The possibilities exist for an engaged citizenry and for local institutions to provide access to meaningful civic participation. We endorse the ambitions of all who seek to engage the community in building a 21st century media in Scranton through private enterprise, public institutions or on their own. 

The tools are there. How is Scranton using them?