The investigative coverage of the closure of the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison was intended not only to help amplify the work being done by the residents of Blythe but also to ensure that there would always be someone watching what was happening and checking in on this ongoing situation.
In 2015, Free Press launched News Voices after recognizing that community members aren’t often included in the discussions around how communities get news or how journalists could better serve the communities they work in. The program started in New Jersey with World Cafe style listening forums where community members could share their concerns with journalists.
KMUW-FM launched Engage ICT: Democracy on Tap to provide reliable information on community issues and resources for taking action and learning more.
Decibel is an Austin PBS project working to engage underserved communities in central Texas. Each year, the staff chooses a new community to cover and work to bring the community into the story production process. They produce in-depth stories based on what the community tells them they care about at listening sessions.
In November 2016, Vox started a Facebook group called What’s Next? A Community for Obamacare Enrollees by Vox. Vox focused on inviting people who rely on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance coverage and who weren’t sure what the 2016 election — and Republicans’ promises of repeal — meant for them. It was later renamed to “VoxCare.”
The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting (AZCIR) developed what is now known as the “AZ Dark Money Bot,” or @AZDarkMoneyBot, a Twitter bot that enables the automation of “dark money” expenditure reporting. The Bot’s tweets include names of the groups, candidates receiving dark money, and campaign spending.
Scalawag’s As the South Votes addresses common questions such as is voting by mail safe, what voter suppression looks like, and how to combat voter intimidation.
The reporters consulted with researchers who said that the pollution levels could lead to “health risks both in the short term and over the course of the monthslong burn season.”
The Austin Monitor, an innovative nonprofit newsroom that covers municipal matters in detail, sought ways to engage readers on the most mundane issues. It has found success by hosting Budget Game Nights that challenge citizens to come up with their own solutions for the city’s budget, an interactive approach that the Monitor and its project partner, Glasshouse Policy.
Up the Block aims to gather resources on gun violence on a single website for Philadelphians to use and connect people with information on recovering from shootings, keeping young people safe, and holding local leaders accountable.
CivicLex established a K-12 program to educate students about their local government and promote civic engagement within their Lexington community. The program included civic action workshops, a comprehensive civic curriculum, and expos where students could interact with local community organizations and public officials.
Vox launched Open Sourced Reporting Network to collaboratively investigate and learn about the “new frontiers of data, privacy, algorithms, and artificial intelligence.”
