Functional democracies rely on the presence of robust and independent news organizations to hold elected officials accountable and shine light on injustice and corruption. At the local level, trustworthy civic information is essential for establishing a baseline of verifiable truths and solving problems in public life. Vermont's Town Meeting Day has long been held up as a model for civic engagement, but Vermonters — like the rest of the nation — have sorted themselves into more homogenous digital spaces in recent years and we've shifted our media diets to more polarized national sources. How are these broader trends showing up in local problem-solving and what are the implications for our local democracy?  

Join Panelists Minh Ly, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UVM and author of the forthcoming Answering to Us: The Right to Democratic Accountability; Meg Little Reilly, Managing Director of the Center for Community News at UVM, a columnist at Forbes Magazine; and Daisy Benson, UVM Libraries Interim Director of Information and Instruction Services; moderated by Richard Watts, Director of the Center for Community News at UVM. 

Discussion is free and open to the public. Please join us in person! Refreshments will be served. For parking, refer to the UVM Visitor Parking Map. Or join us via live stream. 

Meet the Panelists:  

Minh Ly 

Minh Ly is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Vermont.  His book, Answering to Us: The Right to Democratic Accountability, will be published by Princeton University Press this autumn. The novel democratic theory that it develops gives us the resources to reckon with two of the most formidable anti-democratic forces we face today: the rise of elected authoritarianism and discrimination against minorities. Professor Ly’s research and teaching focus on democratic theory, economic justice, global justice, the philosophy of human rights, and civic education.  Before joining UVM, he was a Lecturer at Stanford University and a postdoc at Princeton. Professor Ly earned his Ph.D with distinction in political science from Brown and his A.B. from Harvard.  

Daisy Benson 

Daisy Benson is a Library Professor at UVM's Howe Library. She supports multiple humanities departments in the library's liaison program; is the Library Instruction Coordinator; and Interim Director of the Information and Instruction Services Department. Her professional and research interests include the teaching and learning of information literacy and the provision of professional development for librarians. 

Meg Little Reilly 

Meg Little Reilly is the managing director of the Center for Community News. She has been working at the intersection of civics, journalism, and higher education for more than twenty years. Previously, she served in the U.S. White House and Department of the Treasury under President Barack Obama. She led communications at Convergence Center for Policy Resolution and has been a speechwriter to several university presidents. Meg began her career in public radio. She is a freelance journalist, regular Forbes.com contributor and author of the forthcoming Scapegoat Nation: Sex, Backlash and American Insecurity.