The Power of Local Journalism: Now More Than Ever

Local journalists inform communities and strive to hold power to account. But the profession and the First Amendment are increasingly under assault. Despite the turbulence, UAF Visiting Professor and Snedden Chair Paula Dobbyn says the power of local journalism is needed now more than ever.

Free and open to all, this program can be attended on campus or streamed live via Zoom. 

The Power of Local Journalism: Now More Than EverDate: Thursday, March 19th, 2026Time: 7pm-8:30pm AKSTLocation: BP Design TheatreZoom Option: https://alaska.zoom.us/j/83845142356

This event is sponsored by the UAF Department of Science & Environmental Journalism

About Paula Dobbyn:

Paula Dobbyn is the Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a veteran journalist with more than three decades of experience in print, broadcast and digital news. 

Most recently, Dobbyn was part of the Honolulu Civil Beat team nominated as Pulitzer Prize finalists for breaking news coverage of the deadly Maui wildfires. 

Dobbyn has served as an award-winning reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s News Source, and KTOO-FM and TV in Juneau. Prior to Alaska, she worked as a producer, newscaster and reporter in public radio and television in Boston and Washington, D.C. Dobbyn launched her journalism career in Central America in the 1980s as a freelance radio correspondent covering armed conflict and revolution. 

Dobbyn has a cross-border graduate degree in international human rights law from the University of Galway in the Republic of Ireland and Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a former Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder.

About the Snedden Speaker Series:The Snedden Speaker Series is made possible through the generosity of Helen Snedden, who endowed a chair of journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in honor of her late husband, Charles Willis "Bill" Snedden. Bill, a visionary journalist and former owner of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, built his life around telling great stories and nurturing a vibrant press in the Interior. Helen established the Snedden Endowed Chair of Journalism to continue Bill’s legacy of educating and mentoring young journalists. The series has featured some of the nation’s most distinguished reporters, including 11 Pulitzer Prize winners, providing an invaluable opportunity for UAF students to learn from the best in the field.Support the Snedden Speaker Series:Do you enjoy the work we do? Consider supporting the series through an online donation to the Journalism Special Guest Fund:

https://engage.alaska.edu/donation-with-cart?fid=MllU1Wk7YHY%3d&fdesc=U7WB4fIQMSl0A6vwBAvZs195GNhJrOJHMUOapDwGS3ux3wiziB4inGiwi69BYZzMiJqef0fKXuE%3d

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