Saturday: Pro Action Cafe Sessions

On Saturday afternoon, people came forward to host sessions on initiatives they wanted to move to action. Their topics are listed here. A transcript of the a one word “summary” and the first next step from the session hosts are below. See video of session.  Wrap up starts at hour:min:sec 2:02:25

  • Professional publication for journalists – Keegan Clements-Housser
  • Engaging Community through Op Eds – Laura Gunderson
  • Terraforming communities – Michelle Ferrier
  • Matching citizen and community journalists with newsrooms – Amber Rivera
  • Community led public media events – Alicia Montgomery
  • Community information districts – Simon Galperin
  • Assessing the relationship between availability of high speed internet in poor neighborhoods to student achievement – Tom Bray
  • Telling Stories of artists of color in Portland- Amy Wang
  • Hosting Engagement Workshops – Lisa Heyamoto
  • Engagement in areas hurt by journalists – Ivan
  • The bellwether: How can we use Groundsource to move from public opinion polling to public opinion storytelling – Ben DeJarnette
  • Engagement beyond clicks – Yu Vongkiatkajorn
  • Staffing and hiring for an engaged newsroom – Joe Barr
  • A newsroom pitch deck for engagement-Jackie Hai
  • Igniting Positive Ocean Stories – Mitsue Cook
  • Changing political debate to dialogue – Linda Ellinor
  • News bot launch campaigns – Khari Johnson
  • Sustainable engagement practices for 20,000k circulation newspaper – Bill Densmore
  • International Engagers Network (a.k.a. International Weavers Network) – Cornelia Reichel
  • Third Party Ombudsman  – Kristin Gustaff

Plus: Bonus pep talk from Fiona Morgan

PROACTION CAFÉ WRAP-UP TRANSCRIPT

 

Professional publication for journalists – Keegan Clements-Housser

How do I build a tablet/online publication that incorporates participatory and citizen journalism while maintaining professional standards?

Word: Pragmatism

Next steps: Lots and lots and lots of original research

 

Engaging Community through Op Eds – Laura Gunderson

Make a better community-driven editorial section at The Oregonian

Word: Knowledge

Next steps: I need to describe what the editorial board does and what the opinion section is and then get out and talk to people about why I want them there.

 

Terraforming communities – Michelle Ferrier

Applying a gardening mindset to creating thriving communities

Word: Fertilizer

Next steps: I’ve got to cook something, so concrete step is to partner with a colleague who is teaching a food journalism course and beyond writing about food, invite students in the course to think through this concept with me.

 

Matching citizen and community journalists with newsrooms – Amber Rivera

Connecting citizen or community journalists in Colorado with news outlets to build capacity and elevate their work.

Word: Validated, I’m really stuck my neck out and you were so generous to share your thoughts with me.

Next steps: Research with City Bureau, they do this really well, and connect with the J school locally.

 

Community led public media events – Alicia Montgomery

How do we get a broader range of people aware, interest and involved

Word: Partnerships.

Next steps: Partnerships with other institutions that are interested in convening conversations, and with community leaders and stakeholders so they are invested in our events and in getting people who are more reflective of our community there and so we can be giving something to organizations that already serve the community so they can let folks know that we are in that business too.

 

Community information districts – Simon Galperin

Word: Collaborative imagination

Next steps: Build a timeline and figure out how to identify communities to build this project.

 

Assessing the relationship between availability of high speed internet in poor neighborhoods to student achievement – Tom Bray

Word: Yay!

Next steps: Action plan. I got a bajillion good suggestions of people and program to connect with and we are meeting with our partners in the project this week.

 

Telling Stories of artists of color in Portland- Amy Wang

Word: Conversations

Next steps: Have lots of conversations.

 

Hosting Engagement Workshops – Lisa Heyamoto

Hosting community engagement workshops like this across the country to investigate what drives and disrupts trust in Journalism

Word: Evolution

Next steps: This project has evolved from the original idea through these conversations we have had. Next step is to ask not what is it about, but who is it for.

 

Engagement in areas hurt by journalists – Iván Román

Implement and model the beginnings of engagement with a community long aggrieved and hurt by journalism to lead to fostering a meaningful relationship and change in coverage

Words: Truth. Willingness?

Next steps: Continue exploring who would be in the room, how to select who’s in the room, how to frame the question, and how to have the right people in the room to actually have open discussions that could be difficult, but are needed to establish meaningful relationships.

 

The bellwether: How can we use Groundsource to move from public opinion polling to public opinion storytelling – Ben DeJarnette

Word: Pivot, from partnerships built around media organizations to one built around civic organizations with media outlets providing capacity

Next steps: Finish writing up the grant proposal.

 

Engagement beyond clicks – Yu Vongkiatkajorn

How can I lay the groundwork for meaningful community engagement in a national newsroom that currently only sees engagement as social media clicks.

Word: Thankful

Next steps: Identify a project and start and lead by example and make sure I offer ways to help other reports do the something similar.

 

Staffing and hiring for an engaged newsroom – Joe Barr

Word: Listen because that’s where it all starts and what it’s all about, giving reporters the tools and mechanisms to listen to communities. I am coming away with so much fantastic information many great ideas.

Next steps: We’re hiring six new positions in the next six months and I want to take some of these concepts that we talked about and put them into the hiring process, the kinds of people we are looking for and how we are hiring. [cheers from the crowd!]

 

A newsroom pitch deck for engagement-Jackie Hai

Shifting engagement to the beginning of the process rather than an after thought at the end.

Word: Process shift

Next steps: I have everything I need to put together this pitch deck so I’m going to make it and then share it with anyone who is interested.

 

Igniting Positive Ocean Stories – Mitsue Cook

My project has shifted a little bit by way of journalism, to invite people to share their affinity for the ocean and move them to action.

Word: Mana’o: to share from your soul, from your fire in your belly.

Next steps: It’s about my connection with Pele, the goddess of fire.  Mana’o exists in this room, everyone has one.

 

Changing political debate to dialogue – Linda Ellinor

Changing our political debate culture to a dialogic one through recorded zoom video conversations on topics of social importance.

Word: Evolving our political discourse

Next steps: Informational interviews with people who might be interested to get their ideas before I start experimenting, and also read What’s the Matter with Kansas.

 

News bot launch campaigns – Khari Johnson

Helps media entrepreneurs launch funding campaigns.

Word: Gravy. Got a lot of good additions today.

Next steps: Short survey with one fill in question and add some of the features that were suggested today to the bot.

 

Sustainable engagement practices for 20,000k circulation newspaper – Bill Densmore

Learn how to embed tools and figure out sustainable practices of engagement for a 20K circulation daily in rural MA.

Word: Viewpoint.  The newsroom has to forget it’s POV and appreciate the POV of the communities it serves.

Next steps: Takeaway is an amazing one hour podcast that I learned about that I am going to present to the editor and newsroom personnel.

 

International Engagers Network (a.k.a. International Weavers Network) – Cornelia Reichel

Word: Journeying together and finding solutions

Next steps: Continuing the learning exchange I had with my wonderful coaches. And by having workshop with Agora in autumn.

 

Third Party Ombudsman  – Kristin Gustaff

Mine morphed and changed too. It was initially based on an idea that Stephen Silha’s father had done with the national news councils and there were a couple of state news councils, that act as intermediary between journalism and the public. I had done a similar thing when the environmental industry was getting really sketchy in the 90s.  [Back then] what I was hearing was that it won’t work, it’s not necessary and there are already places that exist and a lot more of is based on consumer education and consumer media literacy. So speaking as a consumer and one of what could be considered a higher educated demographic, I would say the need is vast. My constituents that I hang out with are not the type that just distrust good journalism. We are the ones that want you guys to go digging, but there’s so much out there and so much journalism has been threaded with the opinion that we don’t know what to believe and we don’t have time to go out and seek the good stuff and I see good citizen journalists out there and I see horrible ones so maybe this needs to be a grassroots effort by the public to round up all the existing organizations that you guys already have that we don’t even know about, that you guys know about and be more of a  connecting source.

Word: (didn’t give one)

Next steps: I love the idea of going to the journalism schools and starting right there to show what consumers need, and understanding the standards that you have, and why they are so important and also giving awards for the best, and worst that are out there, whether you are a blogger whether you are the New York Times. And issues that we see on a daily basis from the consumers standpoint.

 

Bonus pep talk: Fiona

You can also take away the dialogic practices that you learned at this conference. How many of you feel like you could do a World Cafe or a Proaction Cafe or any of these other exercises that we’ve done? [lot’s of hands up] All of you could, and you will not be alone.  You can ask any of us. And there are lots of resources, so there are people who will support you and who have your back.

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