How to practise community-centred journalism

The world has seen quite a lot in recent years – a pandemic, global economic crisis, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its consequences and now, the reignited conflict between Israel and Palestine. In these several chaotic years, there has been one particular challenge for media companies that has not only resurfaced but escalated: a lack of understanding of, and relationship with, local communities.

In Europe and other rich markets, trust in news has been falling for the past few years following a pandemic bump. “Across markets, overall trust in news (40%) and trust in the sources people use themselves (46%) are down by a further 2 percentage points this year”, the latest Digital News Report found.

Local newsrooms, though, enjoy more trust. A recent Gallup/Knight Foundation survey in the US shows that only 26% respondents had a positive perception of the news media and a massive 53% disapproved of it. However, many of the participants believed that instead of larger organisations, local newsrooms are more capable of serving the needs of their community. About 53% thought that local media cares more about a community’s well-being and hence, highlighted the importance of community-centred media.

This trust in local newsrooms has given a renewed push to adopting a people-centric approach in journalism and many new, regional media publications are cropping up. In September 2023, Agora Journalism Center, the initiative based in the University of Oregon which was created for the development of local news and civic health, released a report that aims at helping such organisations. Agora Journalism Center seeks to create a more inclusive and people-centred media landscape and this report serves as a guide to achieving that. 

Titled “Redefining News: A Manifesto for Community-Centered Journalism”, the report authored by Damian Radcliffe with Regina Lawrence and Andrew DeVigal hopes to “offer an accessible but provocative resource for journalists new to the community-centered approach and those already practicing it – and as a manifesto to a profession whose work is more desperately needed than ever”. The Fix looked at key insights from the report.

Understanding community-centred journalism

Community-centred journalism is a people-centric model that prioritises community needs and also includes community members in its process. It’s quite different from the traditional models of journalism. Traditionally, journalism has entailed a top-down process where the editors-in-chief or media owners assign the tasks and the employees are responsible for executing them. This means that the stories often highlight the community issues that are interesting to the newsroom and not necessarily the community itself. Basically, the community isn’t at the heart of the process and as a result, the stories might not resonate with the communities.

The report by Agora Journalism Center highlights that conventional journalism doesn’t meet the needs of underserved communities such as “people of color, and people who are younger, less affluent, and those who don’t have a college education”. Madeleine Bair, a journalist and campaign manager for the advocacy organisation Free Press, says that “the business model of journalism has not traditionally worked for immigrant communities and many other communities of colour and low-income communities”. 

Additionally, stories aren’t particularly created to give voice to people. This is possibly why the traditional model has seen a lack of trust among the audiences. However, it’s essential to rebuild the system to involve representatives of different local communities, from individual people to non-profit and government organisations, businesses and more. To that extent, engaged journalism aims to address these gaps and freshen up the old model.

Community-centered journalism is not a panacea but a possible solution to the problems

Sarah Stonbely, research director at the Center for Cooperative Media, describes the traditional media approach as “journalistic-centred” because it takes control of the entire process: creating the main concept of the story, picking up the representative that suits the newsroom’s vision and more. In comparison, engaged journalism puts the community members first.  

Regina Lawrence, research director at the Agora Journalism Center, formulates the core components of engaged journalism:

1. Centering community information needs

The community-centred model puts the interests and needs of the local communities in focus. The stories come from the ongoing issues faced by local people and not from the newsroom. The stories are also based on the information needs of the community. This is the basic component of this approach. 

To take an example not mentioned in the report, The Bristol Cable is an investigative newspaper that was started by a group of volunteers and is completely owned by the locals. The publication focuses on community matters and is largely about long-term investigative projects, such as a report on Bristol’s broken renting system. The newspaper doesn’t just state the problem, it talks about the experiences of the people, other cities and possible solutions. Basically, the outlet helps the locals in voicing their problems.

2. Listening and facilitating dialogue to improve understanding and empathy

This approach requires constant and consistent dialogue with community representatives to understand what is really important. Communicating and listening to the concerns of the people provide a deeper understanding of their needs and helps journalists empathise with them.

3. Building relationships for trust and equity

Engaged journalism is a concept that involves an equal partnership of communities and journalists. It means that a publication doesn’t work as a “researcher” looking at a community for “material” for the story but as an equal partner. 

This equity is an essential part of building and regaining the trust of the locals.

4. Adopting a “belonging and service” mindset

To build a two-way relationship with the communities, journalists need to embrace a mindset centred around the “belonging and service” principle. This means developing a sense of belonging to a community and serving it for its well-being. This approach goes beyond the usual news reporting and focuses not only on the problems of locals but also on the solutions and positive changes. Peggy Holman, co-founder at Journalism that Matters, an organisation that supports media ventures that help build strong connections between journalists and communities, mentions in the report that if journalists only focus on problems, it just reminds people of being helpless. “When [journalism] speaks to aspirations, dreams, possibilities, it draws people in to create together,” Holman adds.

5. Creating journalism that is collaborative and reciprocal, not extractive

The extractive approach in journalism is about information extracted from a community or environment but usually without the intention of improving the well-being of that community. Community-centred journalism aims to change that attitude. In this approach, the community sees journalism as an exchange – journalists write stories from the community’s experience and the community feels a part of the solution.

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These five points may seem simple, but this approach requires a proper overhaul of the usual practices. There are multiple hiccups along the way. For instance, it can be hard to measure progress. This model is aimed at long-term results and, as the report notes, “measuring success goes beyond the number of clicks and subscriptions”. Moreover, even if the outlet is community-centred, it doesn’t mean that every community member can be expected to be a part of the audience. This can be a challenge when publications try to monetise the content or even source donations and sponsorships.

A community-centred approach then needs a lot of reimagining and a consistent effort. But it often pays off in the end when you win the trust of your audience.

Source of the cover photo: https://unsplash.com

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