iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Sam Ragland (she/her)

Rachel Lobdell @rlobdell.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

I've been building News Creator Corps, a new nonprofit on a mission to make social platforms safer for all by investing in content creators and community messengers so they can better share facts, debunk misinformation, and empower their audiences with information. newscreatorcorps.org

newscreatorcorps.org

Home - News Creator Corps.

News Creator Corps invests in content creators and community messengers to fight misinformation and ensure everyone has access to good information.

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Reposted by Sam Ragland (she/her)

Liz Kelly Nelson @lizkellynelson.com · 10/04/2025

What if local influencers aren’t TikTokers, but pastors, organizers, & neighbors? At @ampress.bsky.social , @samragland.bsky.social is helping newsrooms rethink influence & rebuild trust. 👉 projectc.beehiiv.com/p/pastors-not-tiktokers-redefining-local-influence

projectc.beehiiv.com

Pastors, not TikTokers: Redefining local influence

Samantha Ragland is rethinking what influence really means — and helping local journalism do the same

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Yep, that is LEGO water and LEGO brick trees in the American Press Institute's newest local summit artifact: 🧱 "Building Belonging Brick by Brick."

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

📣 A note on influencer collaborations: We are not out to chase illusive virality. At the American Press Institute, we are most interested in this work to deepen community engagement practices and increase organizational capacity. americanpressinstitute.org/influencer-c...

americanpressinstitute.org

Influencer collaborations: Lessons from four months of local news experiments - American Press Institute

“If I knew then that not every influencer views themselves as an influencer, I’d approach them differently with more structure and different terminology.” That’s just one of dozens of madlibs, insight...

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Reposted by Sam Ragland (she/her)

Andrew Deck @andrewdeck.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Over the past year, a network of AI-generated local newsletters has quietly spread to 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S. For @niemanlab.org, I dug into Good Daily's operations and learned how it gained a foothold in "small town America." www.niemanlab.org/2025/01/insi...

niemanlab.org

Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America”

Good Daily, which operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S., is run by one person.

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

📣 In April, we’re packing up and heading to Nashville for our first API Local News Summit of the year on Local Identity, History and Sustainabily. 💃🏽 📝 Who do you know doing this critical, connective and energizing work? 👀👂 #APILocalSummits americanpressinstitute.org/local-media-...

americanpressinstitute.org

How local media can combat news fatigue and serve communities

Americans face increasing news fatigue and dissatisfaction with national politics. But they often love and value the community they live in— and that offers opportunities for local media to embrace th...

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

If you’ve wondered where’s the joy in local journalism, I encourage you to seek out the joy-full and talented Hannah Wise. She’s the kind of “yes, and” newsie so many of us need in our newsrooms, but also in our lives.

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Over here thinking about how grateful my laptop will be when it gets shut all the way down tomorrow. Tabs and all.

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Reposted by Sam Ragland (she/her)

Megan Griffith-Greene @mgg.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Here for this: “Ultimately, whatever it looks like, a need and desire for new, fact-based information is still out there. The challenge now is to work out which of the old models for delivering it still work—and at what scale—and which need reimagining.”

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

For many, this report confirms what they already suspected. 👉 If collab'ing with trusted messengers is already part of your content strategy, Ariel Zirlunick and I would love to hear from you further to inform our API influencer partnerships' guide: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #APIguides

docs.google.com

Are you a newsroom that has collaborated with influencers? We want to hear about it.

The American Press Institute, with support from the Knight Election Hub, is developing a guide for local newsrooms that want to collaborate with influencers to grow the reach and impact of their journ...

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Me, just now realizing my toddler’s been turning the sound on his alarm clock off… no doubt bc 5 more minutes easily becomes 20 when Mommy doesn’t hear that life-giving, almost-bedtime “beeep beeep.”

media.tenor.com

a cartoon duck is sitting on a set of white stairs

ALT: a cartoon duck is sitting on a set of white stairs

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Sam Ragland (she/her) @samragland.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

EOY post to self (and maybe others): ☝️Tiny betrayals of purpose contribute to chronic stress which leads to burnout. ✌️Burnout has unique dimensions. 👉 Recommit to your purpose by setting boundaries, reducing access, basking in wins and treating rest as the human right that it is.

Graphic illustration shows the hazards of journalism as yellow signage. These hazards contribute to personal betrayals of purpose, shown in a matchbox in the bottom right, which catches fire causing burnout as shown in a cloud of cynicism, exhaustion and ineffectiveness. To the left is a “toolkit” for workplace well-being, which includes a kaleidoscope to shift your perspective, a mirror to model healthy behaviors, a dictionary to have the right language and a ruler to measure success — all of which contributes to the fire extinguisher, which blows out the burnout. Illustration by artist Tina Marshall in Atlanta was designed to capture the conversations and feelings in the room during API’s Local News Summit on Mental Health and Sustainability in Oct. 2023.

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