In many parts of the world, journalism is going through a deep crisis. The sector faces multiple challenges, including a fragile economic model, an erosion of public trust and a growing tendency to shy away from information. Without a change of direction, the path forward unfortunately seems clear-cut.
In this tumultuous context, community journalism offers a potential means of responding to many of these existential challenges. This model, which I explored over the past year in two separate reports for the Agora Journalism Center, emphasizes creating news for and with communities, rather than simply reporting account of their existence.
To achieve this, we must move away from the traditional top-down model of information collection and distribution. Instead, journalists should be entrusted with the task of building close relationships with communities, actively listening to them to understand their information needs, and involving them throughout the creative process. In doing so, community journalism offers the opportunity to create more inclusive, impactful and service-oriented journalism.
Here’s what you need to know about community-centered journalism and how newsrooms can embrace this transformative approach.
What is community-centered journalism?
Community journalism aims to create information for and with communities rather than about them. It seeks to address long-standing inequities in journalism by amplifying underrepresented voices and focusing on the real information needs of diverse audiences. This approach involves attentive listening, active collaboration and a commitment to reshaping traditional journalistic practices.
Unlike traditional journalism, which often assumes a hierarchical and controlling role, community journalism changes power dynamics. It values community input at every stage of the journalism process, from identifying story ideas to determining how stories are told and delivered.
This collaborative approach redefines the relationship between journalists and the communities they serve. She achieves this through attentive listening, relationship building and active community involvement. By fostering trust and transparency, community journalism can help rebuild connections with audiences who may feel alienated by mainstream media.
The key principles of CCJ include:
- Center the information needs of the community
- Facilitate dialogue and understanding
- Build trust and promote fairness
- Adopt a “belonging and serving” mindset
- Create reciprocal rather than extractive journalistic practices
By focusing on these principles, community journalism aims to produce more relevant, reliable and impactful journalism, thereby truly meeting the needs of the community.
Why is community-centered journalism necessary?
Community-centered journalism does not provide all the solutions to the problems facing journalism today, but it can play a role in helping to address some of its biggest challenges, including:
(1) Restore trust
In many countries, trust in journalism is at an all-time low. According to the Digital News Report 2024, only 40% of respondents worldwide said they trust most news. Community journalism offers a potential solution to this problem by prioritizing transparency, representation and relevance, making communities feel seen, heard and valued.
(2) Combat information avoidance
Many audiences deliberately avoid news, often because it seems irrelevant or too negative. Community journalism combats this by focusing on reporting that addresses real community concerns and identified information needs.
(3) Improve sustainability
By aligning journalism with community needs, community journalism can help newsrooms identify untapped audiences and revenue streams. Partnerships, grants, and membership models may be easier to obtain when a piece of writing demonstrates tangible impact on the community. Additionally, community journalism can also help drive greater civic engagement by providing communities with relevant, actionable information.
(4) Foster innovation
Community journalism encourages experimentation with new formats, new platforms and new storytelling techniques, allowing newsrooms to better serve audiences where they are. It also encourages greater diversity and inclusion in news coverage, which is much needed.
Cover image from Redefining News: A Manifesto for Community-Centered Journalism.
How to practice community-centered journalism
The transition to a community journalism approach requires a change in mentality, practices and priorities for many journalists and editorial staff. In particular, these five concrete steps should be integrated into what you do and how you do it:
(1) Understand community needs
For community journalism, it is essential to know what your audience really cares about. Tools such as community surveys, listening sessions, and focus groups can help uncover these needs. For example, before its launch, Oakland-based El Tímpano implemented a nine-month listening initiative to identify critical issues facing Latino immigrants, resulting in content that directly addressed their concerns. Other media outlets have taken a similar approach based on deep listening.
“Humility and awareness go a long way in doing good work in community-driven journalism,” says Eve Pearlman, CEO and co-founder of Spaceship Media. “Show genuine curiosity about what you don’t know, don’t see, etc. Your way of seeing/your values, your ideas are not the only way, the right way, etc.”
(2) Cartographic information ecosystems
It is essential to understand how information flows within a community. The media is not the only source of information that communities have access to. That’s why newsrooms need to identify key influencers, physical spaces (like libraries or cafes) and digital platforms where people share and consume information. Resource mapping, a technique borrowed from community development, can help identify these nodes.
Take inspiration from The Trace’s Up the Block project, which created a list of resources – in English and Spanish – for Philadelphia residents based on feedback about their needs following incidents of gun violence.
(3) Meet communities where they are
Effective journalism is not just about what you report, but how and where you deliver it. Whether it’s WhatsApp groups, library pop-ups or SMS services, meeting audiences on their favorite platforms (and in their preferred physical and digital space) increases engagement and helps build trust and confidence. transparency.
Outlier Media in Detroit illustrates this principle by using texting to deliver vital information to underserved communities. TXT OUTLIER is a text message service that not only provides essential information to Detroit residents, but also allows people to interact directly with their journalists.
Similarly, Greater Govanhill, an award-winning multilingual community magazine serving the Govanhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, has opened a community editorial office to make its journalism more accessible and participatory.
Image via la Public Interest News Foundation.
(4) Commit to telling diverse stories
Community journalism requires newsrooms to engage communities in storytelling, ensuring that a diversity of perspectives and voices are amplified and placed at the heart of journalistic practices. To achieve this, media outlets have explored mechanisms such as the creation of community advisory boards or listening sessions like Tortoise Media’s “ThinkIns.”
As Candice Fortman, a JSK graduate at Stanford and former executive director of Outlier Media, told me in an interview for this feature series, journalism must go beyond chasing awards or clicks. to move more towards community service. Ensuring all parts of your business are moving in the same direction will require aligning editorial goals with business strategies and community needs. This triangulation is essential for long-term success.
(5) Focus on solutions and positivity
While traditional journalism often highlights issues, community journalism can adopt a more solutions-focused style of reporting. By highlighting the resilience and creativity of communities, journalists can inspire a sense of pride and hope.
The Stories of Atlantic City project, for example, used a restorative narrative perspective to celebrate the strength of local communities, challenge negative stereotypes, and foster meaningful dialogue.
Image via the Gather platform.
Implement a community-centered approach
Community journalism is not only a response to the challenges of journalism: it is an opportunity to rethink its future. By fostering trust, inclusion and collaboration, community journalism has the potential to create long-overdue change, including the emergence of a more equitable and sustainable media landscape.
Adopting community journalism is not necessarily easy. Resistance to change, limited resources, measuring impact and time constraints all pose significant challenges. However, if we want to create more relevant, impactful journalism that directly addresses information needs, we must invest in efforts that intentionally foster closer connections between newsrooms and communities.
As Madeleine Bair, founder of El Tímpano, told me: “You can check as many facts as you want, [mais] if community members do not trust your organization, then […] It’s no use.”
This is why she recommends behaviors inherent to the ideals of community-oriented journalism. “Time spent developing relationships and listening is time well spent,” she says. “Once you invest upfront in building trust and listening to the audience you seek to serve, it pays off.”
To learn more about the ideas and case studies presented in this article, check out Damian’s two reports, Redefining News: A Manifesto for Community-Centered Journalism and Advancing Community-Centered Journalism. You can also read these reports chapter by chapter on its Medium page.
Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash.
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