Local NExT Lab at IDJC
Dr. Joshua Darr, Lab Director and PI
The Local News Experimental Testing Lab (Local NExT) at Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship (IDJC) will develop and conduct testing to help newsrooms determine what attracts and informs their target audiences and to scale implementation of validated tactics.
Joshua Darr, IDJC senior researcher and associate professor in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, leads this effort, which is launching in the 2025-26 academic year. As lab director and principal investigator, Dr. Darr will collaborate with nonprofit newsrooms on the cutting edge of changing how local news is delivered to areas that need it.
The lab connects innovative local newsrooms trying to change how news is collected, framed, and delivered; funders interested in assessing and improving investments; and academic researchers who can design, implement, and interpret experiments to generate scientific knowledge that can help the entire local news industry.
The economic challenges rocking the industry also present us with a unique opportunity. Local news today represents an incredible laboratory of innovation. Causally valid, choice-based experiments represent a promising path forward for local news innovators, who can bring their ideas to the Local NExT Lab and see them tested experimentally while being involved throughout the design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation phases.
Local NExT builds on Darr’s work supported by the Knight Foundation, Center for Media Engagement, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in partnership with industry leaders such as Trusting News, Hearken, Solutions Journalism Network and the American Journalism Project.
Local NExT Lab will produce:
- Annual report compiling learning, projects, and fundraising from that year
- Peer reviewed articles about these tests
- Book project about working with these organizations and their process of innovation
- Creation of Slack channel for participating newsrooms to discuss their ideas, innovations, and implementation
- Executive short courses at IDJC in Washington, DC, to share best practices with newsroom leaders, journalism advocacy groups, and funders
- Conference in Washington, DC, to allow newsrooms to present and share their ideas and results
For more information on how to support or participate in the Local NExT Lab, please contact jpdarr@syr.edu