David Cicilline, who served in the U.S. Congress, said he remembers a time when there were regional and Washington bureaus of The Providence Journal. Today, those no longer exist, and he said the shrinking of the industry has resulted in an erosion of civic health among Rhode Islanders.

The Rhode Island Foundation, which helps support “Behind the Story,” is leading a national initiative locally called Press Forward Rhode Island, which will provide grants to nonprofit and for-profit news organizations that come up with ideas for how to improve access to news, address information gaps and increase sustainability.

“I’ve watched this significant decline in the presence of local media,” Cicilline said. “You see news organizations just shrink or just go away completely. And the reason it’s particularly pernicious is because you think about the role journalists play in exposing corruption, mismanagement, bad decisions by those in local and state and federal government. And that’s important oversight and sometimes the only way the public learns about those things.”

Cicilline also talked about a recent survey Press Forward Rhode Island published showing 89% of Rhode Island respondents saying they still placed value on local news and trusted those news sources more than national organizations.

But the research also showed Rhode Islanders are concerned about misinformation, and nearly two-thirds of respondents said they felt like local news lacked diversity in viewpoints.

“The responsibility of journalists and news sources is to report facts and not to give you what you want to hear or to support your opinion, and to distinguish between stories that are facts and opinion pieces,” Cicilline said.

“But that’s where civics education matters,” he added. “Making sure people understand this is a place where you can go when you want to know what the facts are. And if you want opinions on something, go to the opinions page or go to the program that’s talking about opinions, not news, but really educating people about the differences between those two things.”

Later in the show, Dan and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including:

• Providence’s Largest Primary Care Provider Searches for New Leadership. What’s Next for Patients? by Eric Halvarson, The Providence Eye
• Newport Grand remains abandoned. Is there hope for redevelopment? by Savana Dunning, Newport Daily News

• Climate change is driving scallops north. That’s good news for New Bedford by Brooke Kushwaha, The New Bedford Light
• Rehoboth fire chief fired over alleged ethics violations in connection to solar farm by Stephen Peterson, The Sun Chronicle

The story, “Working the Night Shift,” appears in this month’s issue of Rhode Island Monthly.

Lauren Clem, a senior editor, and Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, a photographer, shadowed workers in fields including hospitality, health care, policing, fishing and restaurants.

“I am not normally working the night shift, so we had some very sleepless few weeks,” Clem said. “The majority we did on separate nights, and we tried to line them up chronologically within the feature.”

Pitts-Wiley, a North Providence-based portrait and documentary photographer, partnered with Clem to capture moments experienced by those featured in the piece. He said he aimed to respect the dignity of his subjects while using light in different ways to capture compelling images.

“For me, it just came down to what is visually interesting and trying to create images that are compelling irrespective of having all the context,” Pitts-Wiley said. “The viewer is not in the room with you. They don’t know the smell, they don’t have the context, they only have the image.”

Later in the show, Kim and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including:

• Family Travel by Lauren Clem, Rhode Island Monthly (currently only available in print edition for April)
• Has 'Real Housewives' helped one cast member's RI business? We found out by Paul Edward Parker, The Providence Journal

• Three-part series on homelessness by Jim Hummel, Hummel Report
  Part 1: Out in the cold
  Part 2: Finding shelter
  Part 3: What's the plan?
• Vineyard Wind sues GE Renewables to block it from abandoning project by Anastasia Lennon, The New Bedford Light

Eric Halvarson, who has been a contributing writer since August, was hired last month to cover Providence full time. He said the hire marks an important milestone for the largely volunteer-driven organization as it looks to expand its coverage.

“One of the motivations behind starting the outlet was to cover all of the city and move beyond downtown and the East Side, and to cover areas that might not get as much in-depth attention,” Halvarson said during a taping of the show.

Halvarson, who grew up in Cranston and now lives in Providence, recently published a deep dive on murals in the city amid controversy surrounding a large painting of Iryna Zarutska on a downtown building.

The Ukrainian refugee, who was stabbed to death in Charlotte, North Carolina, has become a polarizing figure, with a group that includes billionaire Elon Musk financially backing efforts to put up murals of her across the country.

Halvarson spoke with artists, curators and Providence residents to explore what goes into placing murals in public spaces and what factors are considered when they are likely to spark debate.

“I wanted to find a way to put this in context and bring it into a broader conversation about Providence, beyond the conservative or progressive takes,” he said.

Later in the show, Dan and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including:

• New schools’ price: $12M a year for 26 years by John Howell, The Warwick Beacon
• Is that a $100 bill? Someone is leaving cash all around Rhode Island. by Carlos Muñoz, The Boston Globe

• New Bedford officials anticipate $10 million or more in deficit challenges by Colin Hogan, The New Bedford Light
• Barrington budget and tax levy: A new process and a big increase by Josh Bickford, EastBayRI