USC Professor Henry Jenkins recently cited the Knight Commission’s report ‘Informing Communities‘ as offering three core challenges that will impact the future of news. The remarks were part of an address at a conference of engineers examining society’s greatest challenges.

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, a blue-ribbon panel formed in partnership with the Aspen Institute, published recommendations around the three core challenges: maximizing the availability of relevant and credible information to all Americans and their communities; strengthening the capacity of individuals to engage with information; and promoting individual engagement with information and the public life of the community.

He charged his audience to act: ‘each of these [three challenges] requires bold action just as much as will be needed to solve the energy crisis or to confront global hunger or climate change.’

Jenkins, who this year left his post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a joint appointment at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and School of Cinematic Arts, helped MIT win a $5 million Knight News Challenge grant creating the Center for Future Civic Media.

Professor Jenkins’ blog entry, with a video of the keynoter, is here.