How do we know engaging community matters?
Journalism That Matters just released a report on what we’ve learned. A summary is here.
The full report is here.
Journalism that Matters for the 21st Century, Kalamazoo 2005
Subject areas of note
Journalism Panel at Civic Engagement Conference
Check out the just-released video of the journalism panel that was organized and moderated by JTM’s Executive Director, Peggy Holman, for the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) last October.
On the panel:
- Michelle Ferrier, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and Journalism That Matters board president
- Linda Miller – Director of Network Journalism & Inclusion, American Public Media Group and Journalism That Matters board member
- Chris Faraone – Co-Founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism
- Christa Case Bryant – Politics Editor for the Christian Science Monitor
- Ellen Mayer – Community Manager, Hearken
The panel was distinctive for a couple reasons:
- Based on the feedback we got, it shifted attitudes among civic engagement practitioners from “how do I get journalists to cover my work?” to “how can I partner with journalists in doing my civic engagement work?”
- Rather than being just information-out with an anemic Q&A, this panel successfully became a conversation in the room about what’s possible when journalists and civic engagement practitioners work together.
An Open Letter to Journalists
It’s time for a new compact between Journalists and the Public.
We need you. Your work is vital to the well-being of us all. I can’t imagine a functional democracy without the passionate commitment journalists make to digging deeply into what matters. It is a sacred trust and I thank you for doing it on our behalf.
If I – and others –believe that, why do so many of us seem hostile to the press? Because we feel betrayed. Where were you when we needed you? Where were your warnings about the state of the economy? About the lies of weapons of mass destruction? About the many stories closer to home that affect our lives and well-being? Did you miss the clues yourself? Did you know and not help us hear your messages? How could you let us down?
If you don’t feel trusted, please understand that it is in part the corporation behind you that many of us don’t trust. When my primary identity shifted from citizen to consumer something died. You are not your corporation. I don’t need them. I need you.
Civic Communications Commons
This group proposes the development of a Civic Communications Commons (CCC) in Seattle and King County as a common civic infrastructure that connects virtual and face-to-face civic, community, and neighborhood spaces.
It’s proposal says:
“The CCC would be a common civic space in Seattle, growing from the many existing resources in neighborhoods, communities, the non-profit sector, government, and business. The Seattle Commons will be built by many hands with widespread ownership and responsibility.
“By envisioning the CCC as a ‘common civic space’ we mean, quite literally, the space in which members of a community do their work as participants in the public life of that community. This work includes:
- The many small, informal, but important networks of everyday civic life (helping neighbors, building and maintaining community gardens, etc.) ;
- The building and maintaining of “third-places” both on- and offline, and weaving the two together;
- The civic work of young people, gathering and posting neighborhood and community stories, and building the commons itself;
- The collaborative work of media: city- and county-wide, mainstream, public, and alternative; neighborhood, and micro-local to present a broad picture of the community and gather and disseminate the information necessary for public work;
- The vital work of libraries as conveners, connectors, and providers of information and civic space;
- Supporting grassroots participation by engaging and assisting lively community and neighborhood news and information centers.
- Organization for a broad range of projects in urban design, arts, and culture;
- Community members addressing and petitioning, but also collaborating with, government Continue reading
What questions do you have?
The first full day of JTM/PNW was possibility day — a series of conversations about questions. Here are some of the topics:
- Can open government online help sustain the new news ecology?
- How can we create sustainable freelance in an increasingly decentralized newsroom?
- What is possibility, solution journalism and how can I do it?
- Do we respect the audience and, if so, how do we show it?
- What can academia do for the “new news”?
- How can journalists support community and remain fact-based, truth tellers?
- How can we pay for city hall beat reporters and Olympia gavel-to-gavel coverage?
- How can technology better serve journalism?
- Can you survive the new “free” economy?
- After the crash, how can we re-connect local audiences with journalism that isn’t hyper-local?
- How is journalism different with the tool is a Wiki?
- How do we ensure that the new news ecology is infused with diverse voices?
- What should journalism be in the 21st Century? What should community be?
- What aspects of traditional media journalism need to be preserved and what should be jettisoned?
- Can issue advertising be leveraged to support new forms of issue journalism?
- How can I sustain my local blog and sustain it as a business?
Today we move into anwsers.