Share your power: 10 pieces of advice for any journalist interested in civic journalism
By: Carolina Arteta Caballero
This capstone project is the product of her participation in the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership. Carolina is a graduate of the Class of 2023 cohort.
To download a PDF of the project, click here.
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“Civic journalism is dead. It was a thing maybe 10 years ago,” one journalist told me not long ago on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. To be honest, it was not the first time I heard something like this. In fact, over the past four years — the time I have been working in a citizen journalism lab created by the Foundation For Press Freedom (FLIP) — many colleagues have thrown similar phrases my way. So, “why am I still working with citizen journalism in 2023?,” I asked myself.
Four years ago, I began working in Consonante, a citizen journalism lab that combats the spread of news deserts in Colombia. Consonante aims to serve as a bridge between communities that have often been stigmatized, marginalized, and overlooked by media organizations in our country, and accurate, responsible, trustworthy, and independent journalism. We do this by offering media training to activists, teachers, students, peasants, members of indigenous communities and young journalists in order to help them start producing news about their own towns.
Through this work, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the transformative power of journalism, capable of inspiring action, exposing injustices, and sparking conversations that lead to positive change. However, I have also seen how newly-trained journalists are disregarded by government officials, fellow citizens and even other colleagues. They are unfairly labeled as second-class workers, with their expertise and contributions undervalued.
I believe that the notion that only those who have had the privilege of formal education can be considered legitimate journalists perpetuates an exclusionary mindset within the industry. It undermines the diverse perspectives and valuable insights that grassroots journalists bring to the table. These individuals often possess deep connections to the communities they serve, enabling them to uncover stories that would otherwise remain hidden.
The term “civic journalism” has been wrongly defined by many who simply view it as opening platforms for people to publish their work with little or no guidance. While I value the notion of enabling citizens to share their ideas, I hesitate to label it as journalism. For me, this model requires a two-sided operation: one that not only involves bringing community members into newsrooms but also opening up newsrooms to the public.
Civic journalism can help us tackle some of the most pressing issues faced by media organizations worldwide: the lack of diversity in newsrooms, the eroding public trust in the media, the harmful portrayal of underrepresented groups, the opacity surrounding news production, the dissemination of misinformation, and the existence of cynical business models, among others.
According to the Digital News Report 2022 published by the Reuters Institute, the global interest in news and overall news consumption has considerably declined in many countries while trust has fallen back almost everywhere. The report highlights that in some regions this lack of trust is related to ideological political divides, the idea that the news media is often seen as aligning itself with the elites and the underlying relations media executives hold with businessmen and politicians but don’t reveal. These findings underscore the prevailing skepticism that only a minority now believes that news organizations genuinely advocate for society’s best interests. The report states, “across all markets, just 19% say all or most news organizations put what is best for society ahead of their own commercial or political interests.”
Journalism done by or in association with community members can also be a solution to some challenges our industry faces that may not be substantiated by data. Some that are often spoken about during coffee breaks, informal dialogues, and even media events. For example, that media organizations’ coverage of marginalized communities has been stigmatizing or inequitable. Or that journalism schools by themselves will not be able to produce a future where there are jobs for their students. Or that there are a number of places where there aren’t any traditional news sources supporting people.
Not only do I believe that civic journalism may be an answer to many of these problems, but that it has the power of expanding the definition of journalism itself. It is rooted in the belief that the collective wisdom, experiences, and perspectives of community members hold immense value and should be included in the journalistic process. Civic journalism goes beyond the narrow confines of institutional education and embraces a more inclusive and democratic approach to storytelling.
But I must admit I like categories and definitions. So, I decided to speak with other journalists who have been working in community-centered organizations or doing some kind of participatory or civic journalism to arrive at a more comprehensive definition of civic journalism. One that could serve as an explanation to why we should keep practicing it in 2023. These journalists generously shared with me the processes they’ve developed over many years of hard work, the guidelines they’ve constructed as well as the challenges and motivations that keep them going and doing their job.
Thanks to these conversations, I came to the realization that understanding the essence of this type of journalism holds greater significance than constraining it within a narrow definition. Particularly because civic or participatory journalism — or whatever you want to call it — revolves around breaking free from outdated notions that have imposed useless limits for our profession. For instance, the notion that success should be measured solely by page views or conversion rates. Many of these projects perceive such metrics as byproducts of their primary goal: engaging people in public affairs. Instead, their databases measure more robust and complex aspects such as the demographics of their teams in comparison to their audiences’ and the impact of their work on citizens’ understanding of the functioning of the state and the media. These aspects hold greater significance when the mission is to bridge information gaps and provide knowledge that enhances the quality of people’s lives.
In the following pages you will find a list of 10 pieces of advice that I took the liberty of putting together from the interviews I held with six journalists from India, the United States, Poland, Brazil and the United Kingdom who are working in organizations that practice civic journalism or collaborative journalism shared with me. These pieces of advice reflect why, in the year 2023, we continue to pursue civic journalism and why it may hold the answer for those who are striving to revive local journalism worldwide.
While this list is not meant to be definitive or exhaustive, I hope it serves as a source of inspiration and new ideas for those who are open to exploring this approach.
To build a better relationship with the communities we want to serve through our journalism should not be something imposed. Nor faked. Convincing someone to engage in this type of work is an uphill battle. It requires a personal calling, an inner urge that cannot be forced upon someone. In my case, it already happened.
I have been immersed in the world of journalism for nearly seven years, a period that has felt like a lifetime encompassing the experiences of multiple journalists. It’s almost as if I’ve lived seven years in the shoes of different individuals within the field, similar to the proverbial nine lives of a cat, but in a more mundane, journalistic version. I have played various roles: the enthusiastic reporter in a small digital outlet, the misunderstood data journalist in a prominent newsroom, the digital editor navigating the transition from print in a legacy organization, the inexperienced editor embarking on a shiny new project, the burnt-out journalist teetering on the edge of quitting, the intrepid city reporter sent on assignments to remote locations, and most recently, the self-proclaimed innovator advocating for civic journalism inside a nonprofit organization. Among the many hats I’ve worn, I have consciously chosen to embrace this last one. And share my power.