Journalism That Matters Initiatives
Known as “collaboratories,”  the following initiatives are projects that have sprung from gatherings and events that JTM sponsors, as well as from individual members. The initiatives are as varied as the interests and needs of the people they serve.

Pacific Northwest

Creating Abundant Journalism: Led by Mike Fancher, former Seattle Times executive editor, this group plans to link journalism projects and initiatives with potential donors. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Media Mapping: Jacob Caggiano of the Washington News Council is mapping media news and information outlets across the state. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Support for the Collaboratory: Lead by JTM co-founder Peggy Holman, this group provides support for all the initiatives. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Digital Literacy Initiative: Common Language Project leader, Sarah Stuteville leads this initiative aimed towards teaching students how to become more informed media consumers and  participants. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

TAO of Journalism: Washington News Council president, John Hamer, is developing a pledge and seal of transparent, accountable, open journalism for display on media websites. See calendar for meeting times and locations. See Columbia Journalism Review story.

Building on Transparency: Lead by former Seattle Times op-ed writer, Matt Rosenberg, this project is developing a public document database called “Public Data Ferret.” See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Seattle Happiness Index: Michael Bradbury of REALscience.us is investigating the possibility of creating a Seattle Happiness Index to measure community well-being. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Global Health Reporting: Pamela Kilborn-Miller of Connecting for Change Program at the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education,  Dr. Michael McCarthy of the Local Health Guide and Sanjay Bhatt, president of Seattle AAJA head this initiative surveying the health sector for future reporting. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Microfinance: Currently headed up by Michael Bradbury, the initiative would provide business and micro-finance training for journalists. See calendar for meeting times and locations.

Website Technology: Headed by Brian Glanz and Cate Montana, the JTM Website Initiative is in the process of updating the JTM website, creating an online community site for JTM members and journalists and developing a potential business platform for the JTM Collaboratory providing website hosting and other online opportunities for journalists nationwide.

Detroit

The Living Textbook helps seventh grade, primarily Arab American students to tell their stories.  Its focus on young, diverse story-tellers met our criteria well. Principals: Emilia Askari and Joe Grimm

Operation Promise: College Connection will provide an interactive, multi-media search for Michigan colleges, universities and trade schools which qualify for the Kalamazoo Promise Funding.  It experiments with crowd-sourcing and user generated content.
Principal: Sonya Bernard-Hollins

Front Street – www.detiptv.com uses the Internet to enable community to take greater responsibility for their own information.  It experiments with TV on the web, working with Black, Arab, Latino, and White communities.
Principal: Tim Moore

The Michigan News Center – www.MichiganNewsCenter.org – is a non-partisan source for issues of public interest, especially investigative reporting that performs a watchdog and accountability role.  It approaches a traditional journalistic role in a new way, with a stated intention to share tools, equipment, and their platform with voices in the African-American, Latino, Muslim, and Caucasian communities.
Principal: Steve Wilson

Red Ink – http://www.make-them-think.org/ – provides public, socially driven and open source software for understanding consumer spending patterns. It experiments with visualization and public accessibility to aggregate data to support economic understanding and better quality social action.
Principal: Ryan O’Toole

Re-inventing Assignment Detroit – Transform Time Inc.’s Assignment Detroit into a multiplatform, community centered vision whose mission is to reimagine the image of Detroit.
Principal: Juanita Anderson

Success Stories – project started or significantly influenced by JTM

• Common Language Project – Kalamazoo
  It’s mission: to engage, educate and inform Americans of all ages on the crucial human issues of our time through innovative and accessible journalism.
• spot.us – Washington, D.C.
  Community powered reporting – the public can commission and participate with journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps overlooked topics.

The Power of Storytelling

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Journalism That Matters supports the people who are shaping the news and information ecology so that journalism serves the needs of individuals and communities to be self-governing.

Journalism That Matters is an evolving collaboration of individuals supporting the pioneers who are shaping the emerging news and information ecosystem.

JTM focuses on cultivating “healthy journalists” and lively, informative interaction between journalists, educators, reformers, and community members. We support renewing the inner life of the journalist, and embrace all forms of media engagement with an eye towards preparing the next generation of journalists for co-creation with emerging citizen journalist.

Since 2001, JTM has hosted 14 vibrant and catalytic “unconferences” that have inspired hundreds of widely varied media initiatives around the nation.

Using interactive conversation practices, including Open Space Technology, World Café, Appreciative Inquiry, and Dialogue, JTM events engage the potentials and creativity of the people who show up, inspiring breakthrough thinking and ongoing collaboration that effects positive change.

For a taste of JTM, here’s a video from the 2010 Pacific Northwest unconference, “Re-imagining News and Community in the Pacific Northwest.”

Questions and opportunities in a new era of journalism

JTM events encourage participants to address important questions facing the industry today. WHAT’s possible now? WHO are the new journalists? HOW are stories chosen? HOW are they told? WHAT kind of change is productive? WHO can the public trust? WHAT is the role of journalism in connecting people and community? WHERE can editors find qualified contributors and information with increasingly diminished budgets? WHAT new technological sources are reliable? WHERE is the new newsroom? WHEN are beat blogs, twittering and social networks best utilized? WHY is transparency so important? HOW do we maintain transparency and accountability while protecting sources?

Who belongs to JTM and what is the new news ecology?

JTM members include reporters, bloggers, editors, citizen journalists, publishers, media educators, community activists, tweeters, videographers, social entrepreneurs, photographers, reformers and volunteer journalists from print, broadcast, and online media, both mainstream and entrepreneurial. Individually and collectively we are working hard to reinvent ourselves as well as the overall news medium, including investigating new economic models to support a healthy, vibrant journalism community.

The New News Ecology is the information exchange amongst the public, the government and institutions that informs inspires, engages, and activates the community. JTM  cornerstone concepts of the new news ecology include:

• Journalism as a conversation – a groundbreaking shift from journalism as a lecture
• Shaping a new “cultural narrative” – Recovering the mythic role of journalists as conveners and navigators through a changing world prepares them to support communities in shaping a new national “master narrative” for our times.
• High tech/high touch journalism – Whether on the web or in the café, new storytelling forms are emerging that engage us on cell phones and iPods, and in gathering places with food, music and the arts.
• Ready, Fire, Aim – A strategy of “just do it,” moving from idea (ready) to implementation (fire) and then watching the results and adjusting (aim).   This formula creates rapid experimentation and learning and avoids analysis paralysis.
• Expanding the questions we ask – Adding to the normal who, what, where, when, how, and why, asking questions like “What’s possible now?” expands stories beyond simple information gathering into the realms of inspiration and hope.

Outcomes from JTM

• Journalists are stretched, refreshed and inspired to pursue innovations
• New and often unlikely partnerships
• Breakthrough initiatives
• A community of journalism innovators
• A growing culture of innovative journalism