Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. For people who study journalism and track developments in the field, there has been a growing recognition that local news is being created, found, and amplified in ways that would not have been recognizable even a few years ago—the rise of the independent newsfluencer is just the latest example. At the same time, the lens through which we see the journalism field is changing from news-desert deficit to information-ocean overabundance—we are coming to see that, rather than starving for information (even in so-called news deserts), people are awash in it, and journalists are the beacons that point the way toward verified, fact-based content. This more expansive lens shows that in many places—especially in communities without local journalists—there is another category of trusted information source: civil society organizations.…