U.S. Democracy Day is Sept. 15; Sign up now to participate!

Nationwide collaborative reporting project hopes to shed light on threats to American democratic process

Democracy Day is an effort announced earlier this year to draw attention to the crisis facing American democracy, provide the public with the context and information they need, and bring all types of media together to sound the alarm collectively.

We want to incentivize media coverage through a nationwide journalism collaborative, one day where print, radio, TV, and digital media on the national and local level can come together to report on the threats to democracy that we’re facing.

We are thrilled to announce that Democracy Day is set for Sept. 15, 2022 to coincide with the International Day of Democracy.

The Democracy Day team is actively recruiting newsrooms across the U.S. to be a media partner in the collaborative. Any news organization in the U.S. can participate.

How do I participate?

To participate, you will need to:

• Get a commitment to participate from your newsroom and its leadership.
• Sign up to be a media partner.
• Agree to the expectations above regarding what is required and encouraged for media partners.
• Once you sign up, we will be in touch with more information, including suggested taglines, branding you can use, webinar dates, etc.

Media partner requirements

To participate, media partners will be asked to:

• Allow your name and logo to be added to the media partner page.
• Produce at least one story (but we encourage more!) from the content menu below on Sept. 15, outside of a paywall if you have one.
• Share back links to stories, broadcasts, podcasts, etc., with the Democracy Day team so we can compile them.

Content menu

Types of reporting the Democracy Day team asks you to consider:

• Candidate profiles through the lens of their support or opposition to voting rights or other policies that relate to democratic participation and protection.
• Stories that feature who’s making progress and how when it comes to increasing voter turnout, making voting easily accessible to all citizens, ensuring fairness in redistricting, or other ways groups or municipalities are strengthening democracy.
• Stories about how elections are conducted in your city/region/state — the process behind the scenes, highlighting the credibility of the process.
• Stories about how voting works, how to vote, changes in voting laws or polling locations, information about how to access absentee ballots, early voting, etc.
• Articles about how the transition of power works in your municipality, city or state, including a look back at the tradition, any laws governing it, and a look ahead to what is expected and how it works. How much preparation goes into it, and when does it start behind the scenes?
• Coverage of civic holidays like National Voter Registration Day and Vote Early Day.
• Stories about new citizens being registered to vote, with someone’s story of how they were able to join our democracy, and what their plan is for participating.
• Articles that explore some of the most well-known constitutional rights, including the First Amendment — its history, notable legal cases, and what is allowed and not allowed, and how violations are punished or not punished.
• Articles examining how checks and balances work in your municipality, city or state. Explain the branches of government and what it can do on its own, and what they must work together on, and what happens in times of disagreement.
• Reporting about threats to democracy or actions to support democracy in your community.
• Editorials or opinion pieces about threats to democracy and ways to strengthen democracy.
• User guide to local democracy (who runs it, what do they do, what are all of the ways you can participate?).
• Profiles or other humanizing pieces about people working in government or local election offices (to combat vilification).
• Profiles of local poll workers to humanize that position, and help show that the people who run the process are neighbors and encourage others to get involved.
• Community-sourced pieces of personal stories about why we shouldn’t take democracy for granted.
• How to: explain ways and organizations locals can get involved with related to democracy (E.g., host a ballot party, volunteer with X organization).

Need a way to sell this to your boss?

Send them a link to this video.

Sound good? Sign up!

Are you in? If so, click here and fill out the form to sign up!

🏦 Questions? Need more info? Get in touch!

Email us for more info about how to financially support Democracy Day.

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is providing infrastructure support for this first iteration of Democracy Day, so you can contact us at info@centerforcooperativemedia.org.

Still have questions? Contact the Center for Cooperative Media directly by sending an email to murrayst@montclair.edu.

👋 Want to learn more about collaborative journalism?

You can subscribe to our collaborative journalism newsletter for more updates and information. And of course, we invite you to visit collaborativejournalism.org to learn more about the topic of collaborative journalism — including our growing database of collaborative journalism projects, which is currently being updated.

Stefanie Murray is the director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact her at murrayst@montclair.edu.

About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.