In 1997, two dozen leading journalists (joined by hundreds more, including this writer) who endorsed a statement of concern: that read, in part:

"This is a critical moment for journalism in America. .. Revolutionary changes in technology, in our economic structure and in our relationship with the public, are pulling journalism from its traditional moorings. As audiences fragment and our companies diversify, there is a growing debate within news organizations about our responsibilities as businesses and our responsibilities as journalists. Many journalists feel a sense of lost purpose. There is even doubt about the meaning of news, doubt evident when serious journalistic organizations drift toward opinion, infotainment and sensation out of balance with the news.

"... Change is necessary."

Ten years later, it stll feels as if journalism is in crisis, although much has changed. In the most recent issue of the New York Review of Books, Russell Baker put it squarely:

"The American press has the blues. Too many authorities have assured it that its days are numbered, too many good newspapers are in ruins. It has lost too much public respect. Courts that once treated it like a sleeping tiger now taunt it with insolent subpoenas and put in jail reporters who refuse to play ball with prosecutors. It is abused relentlessly on talk radio and in Internet blogs. It is easily bullied into acquiescing in the designs of a presidential propaganda machine determined to dominate the news...."

What may have escaped Baker's generally astute analysis is that the saving of journalism -- and particularly, of its role as a means of civic engagement -- will likely come from new models of citizen journalism coming to the fore. Interestingly, many of those new models are being initiated and/or nurtured by women.

For example, take the most recent winners of the Knight News Challenge. In June, the Knight foundation awarded up to $5 million apiece for creative proposals for "innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news." The goal, according to Knight Program officer Gary Kebbel, is "supplying R&D" to the news industry:

"We hope to goodness news organizations look at our News Challenge projects and see how to use or adapt them. We want to bring news organizations together with News Challenge winners so our grantees can get valuable feedback, and so news editors will realize how these efforts can be valuable."

The list included a number of women, some familiar to BlogHer: Amy Gahran, who blogs at Contentious; Placeblogger founder Lisa Williams; and newsroom diversity expert Dori Maynard.

The projects vary widely: an effort to create games that teach about topical issues, an in-depth reporting project on Boulder Colorado's new carbon tax; a new tool, geotagging, that makes it easier to identify where a blogger's reporting from; curriculum transformation projects and much more. The full list of winners is here, and the Poynter Institute has a wonderful series of interviews with each of the News Challenge winners.

Between now and October 15, the Knight Foundation is accepting applications for its next round of News Challenge awards. If you've got an idea for using high-tech journalism to strengthen high-touch civic engagement, you are urged to apply. Don't worry about having formal journalism credentials. As Gahran put it:

"I will say from experience that even though many of this year's winners are established media pros, this program really is open to anyone. Also, Knight's application process is the least painful and most creative I've personally encountered. So if you have ideas, passion, and plans, I encourage you to apply -- even (perhaps especially) if you're not a 'media pro.'"

Or as it says on the News Challenge website:

You could win money to bring your big idea to life
Enter now
$5 million is waiting
Everyone is eligible