Founded in 2015, City Bureau is a nonprofit civic journalism lab based on the South Side of Chicago. Their programs mainly focus on training and equipping people with little or no journalism experience to lead community conversations, provide oversight of public meetings, and conduct investigations into local sociopolitical issues.
City Bureau, a digital startup on the South Side of Chicago, has been attracting attention and funding for bringing “journalists and communities together in a collaborative spirit to produce media that is impactful, equitable and responsive to the public.” Co-founder Darryl Holliday explains City Bureau’s innovative model for participatory reporting and accountability journalism.
While trust in media is low, communities always find ways to share news and information—here’s what we learned from our latest listening project. Since 2016, City Bureau’s Public Newsroom has brought people together to discuss, debate and deconstruct how news and information is created and shared in our communities on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
Last year we embarked on a process to define what impact means for a people-centered, community news lab. As our young media start-up matures, remembering why we do this work is as important as building models for the future of local media. That’s why City Bureau’s first Impact Report begins with a story—a historical guiding star from our home on Chicago’s South Side—the story of the Pullman Porters.
Join this special hour-long chat with two finalists in the first-ever ONA Gather Award for Engaged Journalism! Darryl Holliday will talk about City Bureau’s nominated project, and Megan Lucero will share more about Bureau Local’s engagement work nominated under the “Portfolio” category.
City Bureau focuses on engagement journalism being for the people and by the people, and they’ve created guidelines with the intent of fusing traditional journalism with engagement journalism. The resource explores what community engagement is, and where it’s leading the future of journalism.
