The public journalism movement represents an attempt to become entrenched in communities, as newspapers were in earlier years. Some criticize this as abandoning professional values and becoming booster organizations for city governments and officials. Others say the metropolitan model doesn't work for smaller city dailies. By creating a public conversation through journalism, modern news media hope to inspire consumers of news to become more involved in their own communities. The media encourage citizens, officials, reporters, and editors to identify and respond to the issues that confront their neighborhoods and their cities.
Journalists are overwhelmingly white, a majority are male, and most have graduated from college.