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The Group: David M, Judy, Len, Sue , Steve, Neal<\/p>\n
This discussion focused on how good journalism supports civic engagement and the process of public deliberation. This deliberation is routed in Daniel Yankelovitche\u2019s ideas in “Coming to Public Judgement” where he defines a public as informed when they understand the consequences of various policy choices. The process of public judgement is more than finding consensus about a common vision. It is an informed choice, made with an understanding of tradeoffs that result from a particular course of action.<\/p>\n
Len suggested this resources at the top: the pjnet.org blog —<\/p>\n
Public judgment is a challenge in a siloed society where there is little opportunity to share visions or negotiate a process for reaching democratic decisions.<\/p>\n
(Steve) \u201cNewspapers (with a few exceptions) haven\u2019t used the internet for a social purpose.”<\/p>\n
The challenge is making public conversations (in person and online) meaningful for participants. Making them effective is the second challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommercial media can\u2019t do this because of conflict of interest over independent journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there a place? Space? Fpr a civic engagement beat? How do you carve the space?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can create a conflict of priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Len) Public did change the conversation. It is the foundation for Citizen Journalism.
\nPublic Journalism now has thumbs. You can reach out with it.<\/p>\n
See www.newassignment.net\u2026..<\/p>\n
\u201cNew opportunities possible\u201d<\/p>\n
(Steve) You have the tool now to create scale, and an identity more than just the place north of \u2026<\/p>\n
( Steve) [The North Carolina experience is a new model\u2014www.blufftontoday.com] Free home delivery. Very high readership. And creating something like ann Old newspaper war. Online is the tool for listening to the community, creating lists of story ideas. It is better than sitting in office and guessing.<\/p>\n
Bluffton Today is heavily feature driven from those ideas.<\/p>\n
It has actually empowered groups. Its reports helped surface a group of political activists. That challenged the local school board over funding issues.<\/p>\n
The reporting on Highway 278 construction created massive traffic jam, it literally stopped all traffic.<\/p>\n
The public conversation launched by Bluffton Today saw people raised hell online. State officials people flew in from Columbia and the construction plan was changed.<\/p>\n
The paper was a resource to self-organize. It was a conversation space.<\/p>\n
(Len) Public journalism can enable people to work on something collectively.<\/p>\n
Len described how he connected with Moveon.org to be active. He didn\u2019t think he could have an impact in the Marietta, GA, area. He want to make calls for the election. Moveon.org set him up to make calls outside his local area. \u201cI helped elect Tester [in Montana].<\/p>\n
Moveon.org Meet-up model is an obvious extension for journalists.<\/p>\n
It can kick journalism out of the newsroom. And journalists can go out into the community. There was discussion of They report once a week\u2026..and report back\u2026..<\/p>\n
The New Press worked to organize distribution in local communities. \u201cFor this reporter to go back out he\/she needs a new camera. The people at the meeting took up a collection\u201d to buy a camera.<\/p>\n
The Meet-up model creates house meeting that tend to defy expectations. They can be small\u20145\/6 people\u2014but they are the human face to the online network. We had a house people\u2026\u20265\/6 people showed up\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n
There was a discussion of the problem with \u201cWinner Take All\u201d elections. Online discussions and debates can happen under the radar of news organizations. In them communities wrestle with the realities of trying to make democratic decision-making operational and fair.<\/p>\n
(Len) Media has a caricature of the bloggers.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessie Ventura, I helped get him elected by accident. It was a civic journalism project.\u201d Once Ventura was in the debates, he was taken seriously as a candidate.<\/p>\n
(Sue) Big stories missed , coverage of the Iraq war, for example.<\/p>\n
(Len ) “Or what it is like \u201cIf you are a black man in Minnesota\u201d<\/p>\n
(Neal) \u201cI have been a prison activist for years.\u201d The war in Bogata continues with fallout here. Privatization is a big issue for both prison communities and families with someone in prison. How is that story going to get on the web?<\/p>\n
(Sue) We empower people. \u201cWe\u2019ll train you to use video. We have half hour show and 5 hours of video.\u201d The links are passed around. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it will create any change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where did civic journlism go? [It was important for so many topics]<\/p>\n
Discussions of race<\/p>\n
Public subsidies of private projects. See Good Jobs First for documentation of public funds to corporations<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tell them [local groups] that they have to do media. [And the media outreach]<\/p>\n
\u201cA large part of PSTD is not dealt with. There\u2019s no response from tradition media\u201d<\/p>\n
(Farley) \u201cI\u2019m go back to my lobbying days. You had to build relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newspapers ought to do more open houses. They should go out and talk with people. Do more relationship building. And offer more explanations of how they work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we need a newsroom. The Kevin Sites sp? Examble. Hang out for a month and cover the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should be an information beat cop\u201d<\/p>\n
(Sue) \u201cI would go into communities and find people and pair them with stringers. You find ambassadors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to find way to engage the wide rage of the community, not just the white and comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
NewspaperNext forget about your core audience\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n
Do community maps\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n
(Neal) \u201cYou need reporters that have skills to deal with the comprehensive coverage.
\nReal data mapping guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Steve)\u201cYou have your code geek, code monkey\u201d<\/p>\n
That person is a community resource for looking at the outlines of a community in the future.<\/p>\n
This kind of mapping is a Smart growth tactic. People need to see it.<\/p>\n
( Steve) \u201cYou need an editor who knows this is possible<\/p>\n
(Len) This is like a \u201cgoogle model\u201d reporter who links tech people to community needs. Imagine a more sophisticated real estate section<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is Yahoo jobs? — Nine newspapers companies aligning for hot jobs?<\/p>\n
Why \u2013 because 50% of advertising\u2026..is employment related.<\/p>\n
An opportunity?<\/p>\n
The discussion was wide-ranging. And it loses a lot of meaning given this delayed post. Hopefully some of the participates can flesh out their ideas.<\/p>\n
David M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Discussion summary: Civic Engagement and Public Deliberation The Group: David M, Judy, Len, Sue , Steve, Neal This discussion focused on how good journalism supports civic engagement and the process of public deliberation. This deliberation is routed in Daniel Yankelovitche\u2019s ideas in “Coming to Public Judgement” where he defines a public as informed when they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/memphis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}