The Ultimate Community Engagement Journalism Reading List
Introductory readings on engaged journalism
Legacy Media is dead - what needs to take its place?
A prominent media critic lays out why things have to change and what the new journalism will look like: they share an ethic of first listening to communities and their needs and an urgency to innovate.
How Community Engagement Journalism is Uniquely Positioned to Slow the Spread of Mis/Disinformation
Pen America’s comprehensive tip sheet on how community-engaged journalism builds trust and combats mis/disinformation in local communities.
The 5 steps necessary for effective engagement journalism, per the American Press Institute.
The API also looks at the Seattle Times’ Education Lab as an example of how engaged journalism is “making sure your work matters to your audience” and helping to “ensure that work finds the public support it needs to endure.”
Academic and former journalist Sue Robinson’s new book, How Journalists Engage: A Theory of Trust Building, Identities, and Care, digs deep into what engaged journalism is and how it works.
Columbia Journalism Review on rethinking what journalism is and who practices it
We now face a choice between an incremental return to where we left off or a more fundamental transformation of what we’re about. “What Is Journalism?”— a digital edition of the CJR magazine — takes us down that second path, and we hope it will raise fundamental questions for you, too.
On engagement’s impact on audience and revenue
Engaged Journalism brings in new readers/listeners and new revenue - it’s true!
The Center for Media Engagement and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, released a study in 2023 that shows that engagement efforts not only strengthen relationships between newsrooms and communities but can also provide newsrooms with some much-needed revenue.
Columbia Journalism Review on how engagement can drive revenue
Detailed examples of ways that news organizations around the world are experimenting with new approaches to raising funds and supporting myriad forms of audience participation.
How stories done with engagement have high readership and impact on revenue.
The API on how a ‘culture of listening’ will grow revenue and contributions
Making the case for community-engaged journalism, arguing that having a “culture of listening” will build stronger relationships with communities and can help grow revenue and contributions from those same communities.
How news organizations can center community in their fundraising practices
The Lenfest Institute brought together leaders from 3 local, community-centered newsrooms to discuss engagement and revenue
Local foundations lead the way with a pivotal new strategy for bolstering community journalism
Read about how Report for America is finding funding success for local news in Community Foundations
Webinar: Building an Audience-Centered Culture: A Case Study from KERA
Watch this 2-part webinar from Greater Public on KERA’s efforts to build an audience-centered culture
A year’s worth of audience data from a dozen publishers shows that in addition to providing a democracy dividend, a solutions journalism approach to reporting offers a high likelihood of increased reader revenue. The overwhelming trend throughout the data set is that solutions journalism delivers the kind of loyal and engaged audience that is more likely to enter reader revenue programs to support journalism. This kind of reporting can also build a more engaged audience.
Service journalism and solutions journalism can drive revenue
Service journalism and solutions journalism are both essential tools to make your reporting stronger and more useful to your audiences. Both tools can help grow your audience and revenue.
On engagement’s impact on trust
Agora Journalism Center report on “people-powered journalism”
Through conversations with people across the country, the 32 Percent Project identified six key “conditions of trust” — the critical factors that citizens themselves say must be present for them to trust a news organization.
Engaged Journalism — Building Trust, Generating Revenue, and Fostering Civic Engagement
A study of how four different news organizations practice engagement journalism and build trust.
Hundreds of trust-building strategies newsrooms have employed in partnership with Trusting News, a project of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the American Press Institute.
More tips from Trusting News on interviewing community members
Questions and tips to consider when having conversations about journalism and the role of journalists in your community.
On engagement in practice
JMR’s Participatory Journalism Playbook — A Field Guide to Listening and Reporting With Communities
Engaged journalism pro jesikah maria ross details how the station used participatory journalism for a project on the Meadowview neighborhood near Sacramento, California. “We committed to spending a year in the neighborhood, listening and reporting stories guided by residents’ needs and aspirations. The podcast and digital reporting project, Making Meadowview, showed how we can produce journalism that foregrounds community perspectives, priorities, and hopes.”
How Documented uses WhatsApp to reach local immigrant communities
Documented, a nonprofit news outlet covering New York City’s immigrant community uses WhatsApp to broadcast stories and to solicit readers’ questions and concerns, especially about coronavirus. This led to highly responsive, useful, and engaged journalism.
In many ways, KPCC has led the way in driving engagement with the newsroom in a host of innovative and impactful ways. From community-centered storytelling events to participatory photo projects and answering thousands and thousands of Angelenos’ questions. They document it all on a Medium page with regular updates.
A NYC news organization went old school and used snail mail to reach populations that would not otherwise see the content.
Editors, reporters, photographers, and producers spend one day per month working out of a public library in Hawaii. The goal is to learn more about Hawaii’s diverse communities and to demonstrate how journalists work.
On understanding biases and privilege
Peggy McIntosh’s 1989 essay that breaks down how white privilege presents itself in our daily systems. She lists 26 conditions that people of color cannot count on in their daily lives.
The Maynard Institute’s Fault Lines training is about recognizing the many ways humans are similar and different, and how that affects relationships and, in journalism, news coverage. This resource page links to its writings and other studies.
Recognizing white privilege begins with truly understanding the term itself.
How to constructively critique your coverage through the lens of race and ethnicity
Andrea Tudhope, formerly America Amplified’s Coordinating Producer, joined Keith Woods of NPR in this webinar on how to critically examine your coverage. Key takeaways include making sure the reporter gets out of the way of the story and lets sources have their own voice; listening for the unexpected; including context so that listeners don’t have to connect the dots themselves; making sure there is an editorially sound reason to identify sources by race or ethnicity, for doing so; avoiding codes and euphemisms and don’t make whiteness the assumed norm.
On-source diversity audits
Impact Architects reports on what are the most effective methodologies and use of source diversity audits, and how to make sure they contribute to culture change in an organization.
Chalkbeat audited the audits and came up with a number of best practices.
NPR recently conducted research among Black and Hispanic light/non-NPR users to help understand what is working and what needs to change to better appeal to these audiences. See the research results and takeaways that you can apply to your local audience development efforts.
On “What do you have to stop doing” to do engaged journalism?
How the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel focused on what they could stop doing in order to shift to a more community-centered journalism process.
The American Press Institute outlines steps newsrooms can and should take to determine what they can do less of, to really connect with their audiences. First, identify and eliminate low-value work - newsroom activities that don’t contribute to an audience-centric strategy — then find time to:
engage meaningfully with audiences, finding out what’s important to them, and then building stories from there. Maybe it would lead to fewer stories, but those stories would be more relevant to audiences.
improve source diversity
find solutions
seek grant funding
map networks of stakeholders to really get stories in front of readers/listeners
On hosting events in-person or virtually
How Scalawag is using events to diversify its audience and grow membership
Rethink how you’re delivering content. Scalawag is discovering new audiences and building new relationships through its virtual events.
Recently WITF held an event specifically aimed at better engaging with conservative community members. The event was well attended and taught the station a number of important lessons about reaching out beyond your captive audience.
KQED Live is a groundbreaking new events series that brings journalism to life onstage, amplifies local culture and builds community. All events will be held in KQED’s redesigned San Francisco headquarters.
On assessing information needs
Using tools of organizing and media development to assess a community’s information needs
Madeleine Baer highlights models and methodologies of community engagement that are informed by disciplines outside of journalism.
How Santa Cruz Local uses surveys to inform its community-centered journalism
Surveys are a great tool for assessing information needs and finding out what your community is most interested in. See this Case Study, by the Lenfest Institute, for some ideas.
How metrics and surveys can help you better understand your community
How the Arizona Daily Star used these tools to engage with Tucson community members.
On finding good partners
Growing partnerships in the Black community
How the Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina built partnerships and gained trust in the Black community. Audience roundtables, mobile newsrooms, source audits, and one-on-one meetings all contributed to a process that resulted in new stories and new audiences.
An invaluable workbook and guide to collaboration written by Heather Bryant of the Center for Cooperative Media.
Michigan Radio partners with a local non-profit to inform coverage of Detroit
Michigan Radio created a 20-person neighborhood advisory council and created an engagement reporter position as part of this partnership.
How community partnerships strengthened New Mexico PBS' election coverage
A short YouTube video for newsrooms participating in Election SOS, explaining how community partnerships helped NMPBS’ election coverage in 2020.
How the Sacramento Bee built strong community partnerships to better serve their community
Through partnerships with groups outside of mainstream media, The Sacramento Bee attracted new readers, gained access to a diverse talent pool of journalists, and elevated the voice of under-resourced communities in the area.
Watch our webinar with jesikah maria ross about how CapRadio in Sacramento worked with community organizations on a series of projects
On covering elections
Identifying the issues that matter to Philly (in an election)
Audience research can be a powerful tool for news organizations to better understand the information needs of their community and to identify gaps in coverage areas. Understanding these gaps can help organizations ensure their reporting promotes civic engagement and participation, ensures transparency and accountability in government, and facilitates informed decision-making.
Democracy SOS, an initiative stewarded by Hearken, has a ton of resources to help newsrooms cover elections and engage communities.
On reaching rural communities
How CapRadio connected with rural audiences during the pandemic
The pandemic was an especially difficult time to engage with communities at a distance from the newsroom. Read about the innovative ways that CapRadio reached out to rural audiences in their listening area and what came out of that engagement.
On reaching younger audiences
Next Generation News Consumption
The Medill School of Journalism takes a deep dive into how young people are consuming news, and what news producers need to do to reach them. The research suggests news producers should build affinity with these audiences, enhance personalization and customized news experiences, mimic social media approaches to audiences, use accessible language, and understand and use different modes of news consumption.
An API report with takeaways on how young people stay informed.
A new report shares insight into how Generation Z envisions their futures and what they expect from public and private institutions.
Turns out young people crave trustworthy information — we have to work harder to get that information on the platforms they trust.
On reaching immigrant and diverse communities
How Documented uses WhatsApp to reach local immigrant communities
A case study by API that shows how a digital news organization in New York found ways to reach local immigrant communities
How El Timpano and Conecta Arizona innovated to reach Latino and Spanish-speaking audiences
¡Lotería! How to check all the boxes with your Latinx election coverage
Ernesto Aguilar has lessons on what to do and what not to do in election coverage for the Latine community
Effectively working with partners to reach Spanish-speaking audiences
To successfully approach Hispanic and Latino audiences you need to think big, create a business strategy you believe in, and give it time to grow. It’s about making a standalone business with its brand personality.
On really engaging with your community advisory board
Community advisory boards are one way to start more of your journalism from a place of listening.
Introducing the Oaklandside’s inaugural cohort of community advisors
A young community newsroom works with paid community advisors to assess how their journalism is living up to its founding values. Each of the 7 advisors comes from a different city council district in Oakland; they vary in age, race, and profession. Their job is to provide direct community feedback, evaluate the impact of the reporting, and identify ways the newsroom can better reach and serve more Oaklanders.
With a thoughtfully chosen group of people and coordinated intentionally, CABs become a treasure trove of connections and insights between your station and the community beyond your listening audience. It’s time to reimagine your CAB into one that plays an active role in your station strategy.
On power sharing in content creation
City Bureau’s mission is to bring journalists together with the community to produce media that is impactful, equitable, and responsive. They’ve developed distinctive community engagement guidelines and offer workshops designed to address information needs in their community while fostering space for discussion. They also train and pay ordinary citizens to cover local government in a program they call “documenters.” Watch the Local that Works webinar about how the City Bureau is engaging diverse audiences, training grassroots journalists, and holding government agencies accountable.
Creating an Ethic of Care in Journalism
For too long the practice of journalism has emphasized toughness and resilience, and not given enough attention to care for our sources and for ourselves. This is changing with a new ethic of care that “offers a moral framework that prioritizes the meeting of needs for all through intentional and active outreach and nurturing.”
