Civil Weekly Newsletter: 3/15/2019 Edition

If we don’t have good news, we don’t have good governance.

Yesterday, Manoush Zomorodi and Joe Lubin sat down in front of a packed auditorium at the debut year of the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency track at the 2019 SXSW Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas. The topic of their keynote? The intersection of blockchain, decentralization and journalism.

“A year ago, I would not have understood any of what you just said,” Manoush said after Joe explained the problem he and ConsenSys find with centralized systems. Just one year after being recruited to form a newsroom on Civil, Manoush, co-founder of StableGenius Productions and the ZigZag podcast, is now no stranger to blockchain — so she spent her time at SXSW grilling Joe on the future of ConsenSys — and where Civil fit into it.

“Civil had the most successful failed token sale ever,” Lubin explained. Its failure has taught other ConsenSys companies about what they can — and shouldn’t — do in future token launches. But most importantly, Lubin believes that Civil is demonstrating what a decentralized platform for news looks like, including how a statement of principles — like the Civil Constitution — can inform technology like smart contracts and help restore reader confidence and engagement in good journalism.

Read more about the session in Decrypt Media.

Support journalism. Join the Civil community.

Civil has been live for a week! You can join Civil as a member or as a newsroom. Remember that your purchase equals your rights to vote on the Civil platform — and every dollar you spend means more money for the Civil Foundation to allocate to worthy journalism.

As a reminder, this is what you get as a Civil member:

• 100% of the net proceeds from your contribution will go the CivilFoundation to support worthy journalism.
• Civil tokens (CVL) equivalent to your contribution level to vote and run the Civil platform.
• Members-only newsletter, which includes progress reports and behind-the-scenes looks at new technology, new newsrooms, new stories, and new ways to support the cause.
• Members-only community forum to meet, interact and collaborate with journalists and other members.
• Quarterly salons featuring members of the Civil community, journalists from Civil newsrooms and other leading media minds.
• Premium access to Kinzen’s personalized newsreader app to follow your favorite Civil newsrooms and other quality sources.

Learn how to become a Civil member here.

Stories that need telling: What Civil newsrooms covered this week.

Civil newsrooms are being onboarded to the Civil Registry over the next few weeks. To see the newsrooms currently on the Civil Registry, visit them here.

• “Book hoarding is less cute if you think of it as book-privatizing.” On owning many books, this week in Popula.
• What’s happening in Colorado? A man barricaded himself inside Colorado governor’s office at the state Capitol before being arrested Tuesday morning. The Colorado Sun has the details.
• Key legislators have announced the bones of a deal to legalize marijuana in New Jersey. The vote is expected to be close. Read the story in Cannabis Wire.
• Last week, ecoWURD hosted an event to discuss careers in solar, urban farming and waste management — and hosted presenters focused on supporting environmental justice. See photos and watch a video from the event.
• Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to break up Big Tech lacks specifics on how it might save journalism from Google and Facebook, says Karl Bode in Sludge. Importantly, this hinges on ad revenue that used to go to news outlets.
• Neighbors using nets, boats, kayaks and lots of bread have tried for four days to help a duck with plastic around its neck in Chicago. Block Club Chicago has more on this story about neighborhood perseverance.
• This week in The Small Bow, Executive Editor Joe Schrank answers the question, “Is booze a bigger crisis than opioids?” His answer may surprise you.
• “We speak to homeless people (if we speak to them at all) as if they’re unruly children. We make sure our cities deploy hostile architecture… to discourage their presence.” Hmm Daily dives into how society dehumanizes the homeless… and what we can do to change our behavior.

Sludge has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a climate desk to expose the fossil fuel lobbyists who are blocking climate action. Read about — and fund — their campaign here.

Civil en español

• Los Estados Unidos ha rescatada a 26 cubanos en bote a punto de zozobrar en los Cayos de Florida. Lea más en 14ymedio.

For a daily feed from Civil Newsrooms, follow @CivilStories on Twitter.

Why I Joined Civil: ADNSUR

ADNSUR is the largest newsroom in Argentinean Patagonia. Its team of journalists is based in Comodoro Rivadavia, with correspondents in Rawson, Trelew and Esquel. Since its creation, it has emerged as one of the go-to news sources for southern Argentina, while also offering an important regional perspective on national and international affairs.

We asked Ana Tronfi, a founder of ADNSUR, “Why did you join Civil?”

“Civil offers the journalists of ADNSUR a window to the world from Patagonia Argentina… [As part of] Civil, we aspire to add new tools to our work in what we consider a daily task: to exercise quality journalism and to build bridges of trust and credibility before our audiences.”

Join ADNSUR and the rest of the Civil community of independent journalists and members. Learn how to become a member here.

Community Spotlight: Lucas Spivey

Welcome to the Community Spotlight section, where we select one person from the Civil community to answer three random questions from the previous week’s answerer.

This week, we asked Lucas Spivey from Culture Hustlers to answer three random questions chosen by Jamie Nesbitt Golden of Block Club Chicago. Next week, he’ll pass the torch to another journalist by asking him or her three more questions.

Here are Jamie’s questions for Lucas:

1 — What do you do for self-care?

LS: For too long I downplayed that need for self care. I thought I could whip myself into a self employed creator, but the reality is that I have to have a goal that truly motivates and mobilizes all my energies. There’s a time for the whip, but the carrot is more crucial for sustaining myself. So for me self care as a self employed creator is reminding myself of the rewards for doing the work I do, and then praising myself for what I’ve accomplished, regardless of whether it was funded, praised or popular.

If you’re wondering what my carrot is… it’s people! It’s to meet as many people as I can, to know them as much as I can, and to celebrate whoever’s in front of me. That’s my reward for doing the work I do.

2 — A source accuses you of misrepresenting them. How do you respond?

LS: Well you definitely take their view seriously. They represent an important perspective on the story you’re telling. But… they are just one perspective, and it would be irresponsible or just lazy to not tweak that source to tell a more complex truth. In the work I do, I try to walk the ethical line between facts and narrative truth. I’m not out to abuse my sources, but I do need to edit and contextualize their interviews. What I tell my interviewees is that I’m here to make us both sound smart.

3 — Are you optimistic about the future of the industry? Why or why not?

LS: Optimism isn’t the right word for it. More like tenacious-ism. Documentarians and journalists are patient but they’re bulldogs underneath. We really don’t care that clickbait and spin are so rampant today, maybe it just mobilizes us even more?

Lucas’ questions for next week:

1 — Is there a time when you had to choose between your authentic voice and what your audience wanted to hear?
2 — Have you ever had to change direction because of sponsors or advertisers?
3 — What’s an example of transformative reporting?

If you have feedback, or have ideas for who you want to hear from in this community spotlight section, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Quote of the Week

“A trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy.”

— Craig Newmark, Philanthropist and Founder of craigslist; has given more than $80 million in support of trustworthy journalism

Have a great weekend.

— Megan Libby

Know someone who loves journalism as much as you? Please consider forwarding this email to all the should-be subscribers in your life.