Civil Weekly Newsletter: 3/22/2019 Edition
Civil’s newsroom community is growing!
Starting next week, new newsrooms can complete the end-to-end signup experience for the Civil Registry. This is where you will be able to discover the great journalism that Civil newsrooms have become known for. Roughly 100 newsrooms from five continents have already told us they are joining the Civil Registry over the next few weeks.
Check out some of the new newsrooms here, and make sure to watch the Civil Registry grow from 12 to more than 100 starting next week!
Join the Civil member community.
As new newsrooms come onboard, you can still join Civil as a member. 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 fund worthy journalism.
Stories that need telling: What Civil newsrooms covered this week.
Don’t forget to contribute to Sludge’s Kickstarter campaign to fund a climate desk. This week, they released a campaign video that includes Sludge reporters’ personal stories and the impact their journalism has had on the fossil fuel industry. Watch the video — and contribute to Sludge’s campaign — here.
- This week in The Legal Forum, we’re shown how the Venezuela’s political divide is spilling into U.S. law practices, with the backstory on the law firm for Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro withdrawing from representing him.
- “If you were the leader of the free world, one of your worst nightmares would be having your most highly classified data leaked to the public.” Blockchain Trailblazers gives a fascinating explanation of intellectual property and business negotiations — and how they’re a real-world example of the value of blockchain solutions.
- Africa’s most populous cities continue to experience both rapid growth. Lagos, with a population of about 21 million people, sits easily at the top of the list of most populous cities in Africa, and also endures significant challenges. Africa-OnTheRise has an idea about how a “Car Free Day” could help these challenges.
- Global Ground’s newest investigation looks at government land grabs in Myanmar’s Chin State, where people owned and farmed communally until a new law forced them to register their property, or “be considered criminals trespassing on their own land.” Read the entire story here.
- Imagine trying to prepare for an immigration hearing. Then, the government moves it up months earlier, without telling you or your lawyer. This is happening — and the sudden changes may imperil detainees seeking to stay in the U.S. Read the latest in Documented.
- Following a recent report in Sludge, a coalition of over 20 philanthropists, foundations, and donor-advised fund providers launched the “Hate Is Not Charitable” campaign to pressure giant charities to develop policies barring donations to nonprofits considered to be hate groups. Read the full report here.
- Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez talks on FAQ NYC about his Justice 2020 action plan, what happens when prosecutors with legal hammers stop treating people like nails, policing the police, sex crimes and much more.
- For some, home schooling is not about learning. It’s about hiding child abuse. The Colorado Sun has the story about how Colorado’s lax oversight for home-schooled children removes one common method of spotting abusive behavior.
- This week, Hmm Daily has “The Best Thing We Read Yesterday” — which is a great account of New York magazine’s recently published article about Ta-Nehisi Coates. It visits the author’s discussion on political discourse and identity politics — and it’s a piece you won’t want to miss.
Civil en español
- Cuba impide la entrada al país de un reconocido activista LGBTI. Lea más en 14ymedio.
For a daily feed from Civil Newsrooms, follow @CivilStories on Twitter.
Why I Joined Civil: Datadista
Datadista is one of Spain’s fastest growing newsrooms. It is an investigative newsroom focused on better explaining the reality that surrounds us, and exposing corruption where it exists.
We asked Ana Tudela, Founder of Datadista, “Why did you join Civil?” Her answer, translated from Spanish, is below.
“It has been a long time since I first heard about blockchain and the possibilities of this unique, decentralized, traceable protocol. I have been sure from the beginning that this revolution [is perfectly suited] for journalism, changing an important part of the damage caused by the “copy+paste” and the clickbait era… If it is traceable, you can know where it comes from. Can you imagine a better weapon in the future against fake news? Let’s start using it.”
Join Datadista and the rest of the Civil community of independent journalists and members. Learn how to become a member here.
Community Spotlight: Kingsley Iweka
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 Kinglsey Iweka from Africa-OnTheRise to answer three random questions chosen by Lucas Spivey of Culture Hustlers. Next week, he’ll pass the torch to another journalist by asking him or her three more questions.
Here are Lucas’s questions for Kingsley:
1 — Is there a time when you had to choose between your authentic voice and what your audience wanted to hear?
KI: Not quite, at least not in a binary decision type of way where it had to be either this or that. Maybe this is because of the focus of my platform, which is sharing positive and progressive news about Africa, and really focusing on the facts and the human agents behind the stories I publish. This approach, I think, provides some kind of satisfaction for my audience, and allows my authentic voice to thrive predominantly.
2 — Have you ever had to change direction because of sponsors or advertisers?
KI: No. My platform is a social enterprise and it is harder to be induced by sponsors or advertisers when you’re not necessarily driven by profit.
3 — What’s an example of transformative reporting?
KI: Perhaps not in every individual story published, but the general focus and key objective of Africa-OnTheRise hinges on transformative reporting — which is reporting that enables social engagement from the audience and inspires actions to solve issues or contribute to social change. Another example is The Huffington Post’s “What’s Working”, which is a dedicated section for empowering, solutions-focused news.
Kingsley’s questions for next week:
1. What are your thoughts on Paywalls, how do you think it affects journalism?
2. What is the most interesting thing you’ve seen recently from another newsroom/platform other than yours?
3. When you retire from journalism, what would you like to be remembered for?
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
“ Like so many journalists all across America have already done by starting new local news outfits, we need to set our fears to the side and take every step we can toward what we know our democracy needs.”
— Elizabeth Green, co-founder and CEO of Chalkbeat, in Poynter’s “The American Journalism Project has raised $42 million. Here’s the plan for distributing it”
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Have a great weekend.
— Megan Libby
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