| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | AN ACT concerning journalism.
| ||||||
| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
| ||||||
| 3 | represented in the General Assembly:
| ||||||
| 4 | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Local
| ||||||
| 5 | Journalism Task Force Act. | ||||||
| 6 | Section 5. Establishment. The Local Journalism Task Force
| ||||||
| 7 | is established to:
| ||||||
| 8 | (1) conduct a comprehensive, nonbinding study relative
| ||||||
| 9 | to communities underserved by local journalism in
| ||||||
| 10 | Illinois; and | ||||||
| 11 | (2) review all aspects of local journalism including,
| ||||||
| 12 | but not limited to, the adequacy of press coverage of
| ||||||
| 13 | communities, the ratio of residents to media outlets, the
| ||||||
| 14 | history of local news in Illinois, print and digital
| ||||||
| 15 | business models for media outlets, the impact of social
| ||||||
| 16 | media on local news, strategies to improve local news
| ||||||
| 17 | access, and public policy solutions to improve the
| ||||||
| 18 | sustainability of local press business models and private
| ||||||
| 19 | and nonprofit solutions.
| ||||||
| 20 | Section 10. Membership. The Task Force shall consist of
| ||||||
| 21 | the following 13 members:
one member of the House of
| ||||||
| 22 | Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House of
| ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | Representatives; one member of the House of Representatives | ||||||
| 2 | appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives; one member of the Senate appointed by
the | ||||||
| 4 | President of the Senate; one member of the Senate appointed by | ||||||
| 5 | the Minority Leader of the Senate; one member appointed by the
| ||||||
| 6 | Governor; one representative of the Medill School of
| ||||||
| 7 | Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at
| ||||||
| 8 | Northwestern University; one representative of the Public | ||||||
| 9 | Affairs Reporting Program at the
University of
Illinois at | ||||||
| 10 | Springfield; one representative of the School
of Journalism at | ||||||
| 11 | Southern Illinois University Carbondale; one
representative of | ||||||
| 12 | the Illinois Press Association; one representative of the
| ||||||
| 13 | Illinois Broadcasters Association; one representative of the | ||||||
| 14 | Illinois
Legislative Correspondents Association; one | ||||||
| 15 | representative of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council; | ||||||
| 16 | one representative of the Illinois News Broadcasters | ||||||
| 17 | Association; one representative of the University of Illinois | ||||||
| 18 | at Urbana-Champaign; and one representative of the
Illinois | ||||||
| 19 | Municipal League. Appointments shall be made no later
than 30 | ||||||
| 20 | days following the effective date of this Act.
| ||||||
| 21 | Section 15. Meetings. The Task Force shall meet a minimum
| ||||||
| 22 | of 5 times to review, study, and analyze existing literature | ||||||
| 23 | as
well as quantitative and qualitative data on the status of
| ||||||
| 24 | journalism in the State of Illinois. | ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | Section 20. Support. The Department of Commerce and
| ||||||
| 2 | Economic Opportunity shall provide administrative and other
| ||||||
| 3 | support to the Task Force.
| ||||||
| 4 | Section 25. Findings and recommendations. The Task Force
| ||||||
| 5 | shall submit its findings, along with its recommendations for
| ||||||
| 6 | legislation, to the Governor and the General Assembly no later
| ||||||
| 7 | than one year after the effective date of this Act.
| ||||||
| 8 | Section 30. Repeal. This Act is repealed 2 years after the
| ||||||
| 9 | effective date of this Act.
| ||||||