Thinking About Media & Civic Health
When we recently announced the renewed vision for the Agora Journalism Center, you may have noticed it contains the phrase “civic health.” In fact, civic health figures pretty prominently on our new website.
“Civic health” may seem like a quaint phrase at a time when so much attention is focused on the malignancies of toxic tech and rampant disinformation. But we chose that concept as a centerpiece for Agora’s renewed vision deliberately.
The civic health metaphor reminds us that health is a product of systems, not just individual behaviors. Just like humans’ physical and mental health is profoundly shaped by the social and economic systems they live within and the quality of life in their neighborhoods, communities’ civic health is shaped by information and storytelling systems. The flow of quality, trusted information and storytelling is as important to civic health as the flow of fresh air is to physical health.
What does it mean for a community to be civically healthy? We define civic health as the ability of communities to work together to address shared problems. Research indicates that communities where more people are civically engaged are likely to also be safer, healthier and better educated, and to have more responsive governments and even better physical health. (It’s important to note that just as a person’s physical health is rarely 100% perfect, so too with civic health: Some communities exhibit stronger civic health indicators than others.) In contrast, some American communities can be considered “civic deserts” because they lack enough places and ways for community members to discuss issues, address problems collaboratively, and form mutual aid relationships.
Media, information, and storytelling are essential to civic health. To understand the challenges facing one’s community and to work with others to make the community better for all depends not only on paying attention, being curious, and getting involved, but on being able to access good quality, trusted information and to hear the experiences of others in the community. In fact, communication scholars (specifically, those who study communication infrastructure theory) believe that a robust infrastructure of information and storytelling are central to building, maintaining, and changing communities.
Robust news organizations are essential to civic health. They play a critical role because of the resources and expertise, and the longevity and historical knowledge they can bring to the work of telling a community’s stories. And they offer an important bridge between local government and the public. When local news organizations shrink or close down, important stories don’t get told, accountability is weakened, people participate less in local decision-making, and political polarization increases.
But, importantly, we believe that trustworthy information and inclusive storytelling come not just from traditional newsrooms. Self-identified journalists aren’t the only critical story-tellers in a community. Civic organizations, mutual aid groups, libraries, civically-minded bloggers — these all are important players in the community information infrastructure as well. And unfortunately, too often, local journalism doesn’t really cover local communities deeply, or include the voices of all within the community — gaps that other people and organizations may end up filling.
That’s why our renewed focus at Agora is on “journalism” broadly defined. The community-centered journalism we support includes both traditional news organizations who want to connect more deeply with the multiple, diverse publics they serve, and civic and community organizations who provide important information as they work to make life better for local communities.
For all these reasons, we believe that vibrant local information and storytelling systems are critical to civic health. Agora is committed to understanding and nurturing that connection between local journalism — broadly defined — and functional, inclusive communities.
Regina Lawrence is the center’s research director and associate dean of the School of Journalism and Communication in Portland. She is a nationally recognized authority on political communication, civic engagement, gender and politics, and the role of media in public discourse about politics and policy.
