It is, says Andrew DeVigal, “a good starting point. How do we start a conversation?” That conversation is about community journalism and the hurdles it must clear daily, be it financially or with the swirl of ignoble disinformation that surrounds us. That starting point is the 2023 documentary film For The Record by independent filmmaker Heather Courtney, an up close look at community journalism with Laurie Brown, editor and publisher of The Canadian Record. The weekly paper has served Canadian, Texas (population 2,339 at the 2020 census), and Hemphill County in the Texas Panhandle since 1893. As the Austin Film Festival notes, the film “is a mostly verite documentary that follows one year in the life of the small-town newspaper The Canadian (Texas) Record in what might be its last year.” The Canadian Record stopped printing in March 2023, as the family-owned newspaper was unable to find a buyer. Both Brown and Courtney will attend the screening and participate in a discussion afterward facilitated by DeVigal. “We’re not going to solve the problem in our two-hour time frame,” DeVigal says, but he hopes the conversation steers its way to how community newspapers can be financially sustainable and re-establish trust in the communities they serve. DeVigal is the director of the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, which advances community-centered journalism.

For The Record: A Film Screening and Community Dialogue is 5:30 pm Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Erb Memorial Union Redwood Auditorium at the University of Oregon. Register at Calendar.uoregon.edu. FREE.