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Illinois’ Growing News Deserts and Why We Should CareWe lose a central tenet of our representative democracy when we lose the free press. We are losing the free press today in many ways. Press freedoms suffered under former administrations for lack of transparency and access. The current administration directly threatens individual members of the press and undermines the legitimacy of traditional news media. Censorship is a growing threat. But maybe the most sinister threat to the importance of the press is the fall of local newspapers and other local outlets.
This program will examine the state of local journalism in Illinois. It will touch on the challenges caused by dwindling news coverage and highlight recent successes and important news coverage specific to the region where the presentation will be given.
Audience Recommendations
This presentation is appropriate for any age, but if you anticipate a significant number of young adults or children, please let Julia Rendleman know. Members or those associated with local news organizations or alternative media outlets may find the presentation particularly impactful as well as journalism students and local organizers.
Program Logistics
This is a 45-minute presentation, with 15-30 minutes for questions and discussion. Julia Rendleman will bring a laptop. The host should provide a compatible HDMI to USB-C cord, a screen, podium or table, microphone (if the room is large), and stool or chair. Recording is allowed by the host only.
Heritage / Culture Media
Bio
Based in Makanda, IL
Julia Rendleman is a photojournalist and assistant professor of journalism based in southern Illinois. She enjoys stories about history and place, community and the environment. Her work has been used to advocate for affordable housing reform and alternative approaches to substance abuse and rehabilitation.
Julia has received four grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. A current (24/25) grant supports her work with students at Southern Illinois University to tell stories about America's fastest shrinking county - Alexander County, Illinois. In 2010, she was named a Getty Images Emerging Talent Photographer. That same year she received a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography for a story about a women’s prison in southern Illinois. Her work was chosen for the best of American Photography 37 (for 2020). She attended the 7th annual New York Portfolio review in March 2019. She is the July 2019 Project Support Awardee of the DocumentaryProjectFund for her personal project "Down the Pike," a series about American housing insecurity. She was a September 2017 grantee of the Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, investigating the implications of drug use and drug policy on women as it relates to the opioid crisis.
Julia received hostile environment training through Reuters (2019) and again in 2025 and is FAA Part 107 Drone Certified. A photo Julia made of two young ballerinas at the foot of the Robert E. Lee monument during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 went viral.
For three years, Julia served on the board of Brown Ballerinas for Change, an organization created by the ballerinas and their mothers.
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Event venue
Sasher Stalter Matson Building 15 Park Ave W Princeton, IL 61356, 323 Park Ave W, Princeton, IL 61356-1931, United States
Tickets
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