‘We cannot be in this journalism silo’: News Futures tries to grow a civic media field

“We are sitting in the middle of a fucking polycrisis.” That’s how Darryl Holliday introduced the first-ever News Futures Convention in San Francisco in March.

While the idea of being in crisis is a common theme of U.S. journalism conferences, this was not a traditional journalism conference. News Futures, fiscally sponsored by the nonprofit civic media organization City Bureau, describes itself as “a community of practice dedicated to reimagining how communities access and use the information they need to thrive,” and the 70 or so participants at its convention were there as stewards, funders, or active contributors to News Futures working groups. Many of them have the words “founder” or “co-founder” in their biographies and have played key roles at civic media organizations like Bureau Local, City Bureau, Conecta Arizona, Documented, El Tímpano, the Listening Post Collective, Outlier Media, and Resolve Philly.

In the lead-up to the convention, News Futures working groups had been grappling with questions like how to work with civic allies beyond journalism, how to support Spanish-language media ecosystems, and how to develop economic models for civic information. At the convention, the mandate was to collaboratively develop and vote on campaigns to guide the next round of News Futures initiatives and working groups. While participants acknowledged the direness of the moment, it was almost always referenced as a jumping-off point for action. As journalist and educator Vanessa Maria Graber noted, “It feels really good to be in community and to have a collective freak-out with our peers, but also figure out the ways that we can support each other and be there for one another.”

Holliday noted that News Futures has intentionally avoided getting much bigger, so it can remain nimble and avoid competing for funding with members of its network. The small staff, including him, are all part-time contractors. Efforts to scale up are directed toward the growth of signatories to the News Futures Charter — a statement of goals nested under heading such as “news must evolve,” “everyone has a role to play,” “storytelling should unite,” “collaboration is required,” and “a vibrant civic life is our goal.” At the time of the convention, the charter had more than 700 signatories.

Holliday also wants to grow a broader civic media field that includes participants from a variety of sectors that are “siblings in this work” — people working in civic engagement, education, libraries, relational tech, and so on. “We cannot be in this journalism silo,” he said.

At the convention, breakout groups developed News Futures “campaign” proposals:

• Presenters from the shared identity group talked about engaging News Futures signatories to encourage them to use the charter as a guide for their work.
• The standards of practice group advocated for developing curriculum, assessments and best practices.
• The shared knowledge group focused on making research on civic media and its impact more accessible — proposing a possible tool to surface research that already exists (something that the recently launched Local News Research Hub may accomplish at least in part), and supporting research that fills knowledge gaps.
• The leadership and grassroots support group talked about supporting, mapping, and networking information stewards and community builders, and funding local fellows to organize dinners and convene people. The presenters argued that this could be an opportunity to translate the News Futures charter for non-journalists playing critical roles informing their communities.
• Finally, the group focusing on funding and policy raised the issue of being “boxed in” by available revenue sources as defined by the current policy and funding environment. They discussed how they might use people power to swarm policy windows, prototype private capital experiments, and organize allied funders.

Participants voted on the proposals they’d like to see prioritized. The proposal that got the most votes was the one aiming to connect News Futures to informal community networks outside of journalism. In addition to signaling the declining salience of the journalism industry in many people’s media and information diets, this may also reflect a growing awareness of how community members are helping to inform, organize, and connect their communities. Attendees noted neighborhood efforts like ICE watch signal chats and other community-building and mutual aid efforts. Many were curious about whether and how the civic media field could support or collaborate with community-led information sharing efforts.

“It would be cool to see some big power moves come out of News Futures in one way or another,” journalism educator Carrie Brown said. That might include initiatives around media policy, or “standard setting” so journalism educators can offer “a new way of viewing things.”

Other participants talked about setting standards for information ecoysystems research, and influencing the philanthropic sector. “My hope is that this group becomes so undeniably interesting to funders that they are seeking the input of members and the group at large,” Jennifer Brandel said, “and taking cues from this group.”

Brown also hopes News Futures can help facilitate local grassroots actions at larger scale — “not that the change happens at a bigger national level, but that there’s a driving conversation at that level.” Brown explained that she wanted to see national initiatives help “people feel empowered to be like, ‘Hell, yeah, I want to start this in my community.”

Community media advocate Matt Schuster suggested the time may have come “to stop iterating” and trying “a little thing here and here.” Schuster hopes News Futures can move toward a “big vision goal” that “comes out to say this is what a really healthy civic media ecosystem looks like.” He argued that offering a model for a newly built civic media ecosystem will let the organization chart who will be involved and “what we can let go of in order to get there.”

Checking in after the convention, Holliday said he received positive feedback on efforts to expand who’s included in the civic media field, but acknowledged that “the walls are high” between sectors because so many nonprofits are competing for philanthropic resources: “By bringing in people from different sectors, and bringing in funders who really get this, and bring in practitioners from the local civic media, local news and information spaces, to just throw down together,” he said, “that’s, I think, a good part of the work in breaking the silos down.”

Circling back to his reflection on the polycrisis, Holliday offered a more optimistic vision for how work to build an expanded civic media may support a reimagined public media in coming years: “I think all the ingredients are there for a sea change, for the growth of a new thing that should pull from what came before.”

News Futures has announced its new slate of working groups following up on the convention. Signatories can sign up to express interest until July 19.