Gather is a project + platform to support community-minded journalists and other engagement professionals. Our mission: make journalism more responsive to the public’s needs and more inclusive of the public’s voices and diversity, by helping journalists, educators, and students who share these values find each other, find resources and best practices, and find support and mentorship. Learn more about Gather.
This step-by-step guide by Alicia Bell and Mike Rispoli can help newsrooms examine their own power and design engagement strategies that don’t perpetuate transactional or extractive relationships with the public. To foster a new future for journalism, it’s crucial for
Seattle Times’ Education Lab hosts a signature student engagement program called Student Voices, launched in 2015 – two years after Ed Lab began. High school and college students with experience in Washington public schools receive one-on-one coaching from Seattle Times editors to produce stories from start to finish.
During this Gather Lightning Workshop, attendees collaborated on a document that you can take back to your newsroom, including lessons learned from journalists who have incorporated texting as a regular part of their work.
“I’m passionate about using search engines and optimizing for them for the good of newsrooms and of their audiences. I would love to have the conversation around sharing news via search get as big as the conversation around social, and hope I’m doing my part!”
“Gather folks really care about journalism, telling stories and looking for different ways to reach people in their communities with the information they want and need. I want to make a difference in creating relationships with people outside our audience.”
“I believe engaged journalism and solutions journalism can elevate the relevance and reach of our reporting. I also see a need for a public square for journalists to come together and share what is (and is not) working. Gather is a forum for these things.”
