Who is we? Journalists, artists, librarians, activists, citizens, residents, those who care.
What’s the quest behind the question? How can journalism and engagement help communities to heal and create space for belonging?
“We tell ourselves stories to live.” –Joan Didion
H.S.L. = HEARD SEEN LOVED
TRUST & LOVE; CARE = POWER
Heard Seen Loved translates to Belonging → JOY → Commitment and Action
Requires journalists to come from a different intention→
CONNECTING → Brokering relationship.
COMMONALITIES FIRST, not differences.
RELEVANCE to community and decision making; love in action, news you can use.
“THE SYSTEM” makes visible the levers of power.
LANGUAGE, watchwords that diminish or erase points of view.
ATTEND ON MULTIPLE LEVELS→ Historical narratives of a geography, slavery and oppression. Must attend to cultural narratives of dominant and marginalized groups. What are the stories you are walking on/into?
TIME: Slow movement through layers of “soil”, rich stories of communities must be infused with the layers of the history of the geography.
IDENTITY: In and of the world. Duality of identity. Personal/professional/ethnicity
NOT economic/profit motive
PROFESSIONAL CULTURE
Toxic Organizations/Newsrooms CANNOT generate joy. Suppression of expression.
Journalists are MEAN. Heightened emotions when journalists are extracting information and “fixing” communities. Journalists treat each other badly.
I was treated like shit → so I passed it on.
Silencing → Professional culture.
Need Journalists Anonymous for personal sharing of trauma FROM newsrooms toward their own.
Newsrooms embodying POWER→ “Plantation Culture”. Being treated as journalists as indentured servants. Commercial/profit motives drives POWER.
But SERVICE with kindness can help generate joy from work and in the communities we serve.
REFLECTION: Need time to reflect on MOTIVATIONS/Intentions. Examine, reflect. Are we seeking “validation”? Chasing reward/incentive structures/awards. Savior complex and ego → When reflecting on the overwhelmingness of engaging in and with communities. Capacity to respond. Feelings that we as journalists have to SOLVE the community issues. When our job is to make visible the systems and issues so communities can work to solve it for themselves.
Competition/Individualism
You’re a “functioning cog” in the machinery of journalism. Different kind of incentive structure.
$$$–> Figure out what works for your context. Experimentation AND changing from within. Typically underresourced.
Currently hierarchical versus horizontal (democratizing, sharing of power)
How do we → Build a community learning organization?
News→Commerce→Business→Economies→Political→Power. Currently news for the 10 percent, not the 90 percent.
“Representative” vs. Peer-to-Peer
“Every voice is valid.”
Gilded cages, filter bubbles, Ivory Tower → Research, talk, listen.
SEE ME
Community listening, dialogue and learning;
Civic/news hybrids.
CULTURAL NARRATIVES
Journalism is just one of the cultural producers creating community narratives (museums, city planners, civic infrastructure, artists)
Journalism is a platform for business.
Connect to assets and community resources
Situated knowledge
VALUE rather than lack
HONOR lived experience
Provide means to communicate, listen, learn, → THEN report.
WhatsApp→ App to consume news in Chile/NY/Documented communities.
Backgrounders/Explainers/Directory of Who’s Who in the community.
Archive→ Use to provide the who/what/when/where
Move COMMUNITY MEMBERS to action. Activism.
“We are activating community intention toward shared purpose,” Michelle Ferrier
News AND Information
Providing CONTEXT (historical, present, future perspectives). How are the stories informed by what has happened before in this geography?