Burnout is all around us. It’s an implicit scourge in journalism that might result from diminishing returns on some cultural expectations for the work we do. Let’s talk about what we’ve done and what tools we’ve used to make progress happen.

Burnout is all around us. It’s an implicit scourge in journalism that might result from diminishing returns on some cultural expectations for the work we do. Let’s talk about what we’ve done and what tools we’ve used to make progress happen.
Learn how Bridget Thoreson of INN, Katherine Nagasawa and Jennifer Hack Wolf applied this simple exercise to their own reporting at WBEZ in Chicago and The Beacon in Kansas City after participating in a Hearken-led training through Election SOS in 2020.
The Solutions Journalism Network offers 16 steps for innovative newsrooms to navigate a better future for themselves and their communities. A better, more sustainable path might be easier than you might think. One key is to foster deeper relationships with your audiences as partners rather than customers/audience members. Another is to write about how communities are rebuilding and reviving just as well as you cover breakdowns, problems and collapse.
What if you based your election coverage on what your community has told you they actually want candidates to be talking about as they compete for votes? Join our hosts, Brittany Schock from Richland Source, Bridget Thoreson from Hearken, and Joy Mayer from Trusting News as they talk about what that process actually looks like and what they hope it achieves. Read more about The Citizens Agenda.
Jennifer Brandel wanted to know: what would happen if the public was brought in to the editorial process? As an independent producer and reporter at WBEZ in Chicago, the question had weighed on her, and in 2012 she founded Curious City through an initiative with the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR).