Skills for citizen journalists…

24. Civic affairs reporting for citizen journalists

Published in

PacificEdge

9 min readJul 30, 2022

Civic affairs reporting can be challenging for citizen journalists because it requires the dedication of time and defining the motivations of local government and citizens.

ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE roles for the citizen journalist is civic reporting. It provides an independent voice between local government and citizens that is more informative and nuanced than communications filtered through a council’s communications department.

It isn’t possible for voluntary civic journalists to provide the consistency and depth that the paid staff of a newspaper can offer. Nonetheless, civic reporting can provide the public with useful information and clarification, especially when council is considering a controversial development.

The citizen journalist covering the civic round will attend council meetings and get comment from councillors and council itself. It pays to cultivate cordial relations with council communications staff. They might be reticent at first, either resenting your intrusion into council affairs or fearing you might be someone out to get council. Over time, reasonable and fair reporting may overcome this reticence as you demonstrate through your work that you are not someone with an agenda other than reporting local news.

Reporting will often be about controversial development proposals or changes in the local government area. It is then that you see the worst in people.

Why do councils avoid public meetings?

If you cover council affairs on your blog, you might notice that some councils avoid holding public meetings about controversial proposals. It is understandable that citizen journalists, and journalists employed by media organisations, hopefully, will see a little contradiction here. Democratic principle proposes that councils should hold public meetings to gauge public interest and to clarify issues. If only it were that simple.

Why do some councils avoid public meetings? Because of their experience. Public meetings are not always the venue for a fair hearing or rational discussion about some issue or proposal.

Let me offer an example.

The NIMBY hazard

In Randwick, a suburb in Sydney’s coastal Eastern Suburbs, council’s communications department organised a public information meeting to clarify confusion and misinformation/disinformation circulating about a development in a public park.

When the public meeting was advertised, the group of local people opposed to the development got busy recruiting supporters to attend the event. They stacked the meeting. What ensured was no exercise in democracy nor a fair hearing. People who disagreed with them were shouted down and abused. The group took over the meeting.

Their ignorance of the facts around the development was astounding, as were some the ludicrous assumptions they made, their disregard for democratic process and their rudeness. As a public information meeting the event was a disaster.

These were NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), an acronym that describes groups who often-vehemently oppose developments. The characteristics I describe above are typical of many NIMBY groups.

The incident was far from the only example I have seen. It makes clear why councils might prefer to avoid public meetings. They can be unproductive and serve only to exacerbate community division.

Let me make it clear that not all groups opposing development display this bad behaviour. Some development proposals are so potentially damaging that opposition is the only sane option.

Reporting NIMBY’s

When it comes to NIMBY groups we need to determine their motivation. Is it truly civic? Is it selfish? Do they want to control what happens in a neighbourhood? Are they council haters? A sorry list, I know, however it is not only I who has encountered all of those motivations.

We look at their claims. Do they have evidence that shows they might be right? Or, are their claims based on imagined scenarios? Do they offer facts and the evidence to support them of do they simply make assumptions? Where they cite examples from elsewhere, are the circumstances similar to the case and area at issue or are they too different to draw conclusions from? Do they play to emotion rather than facts? What do they stand to gain from their opposition?

Assumption, failure to fully research a council proposal and passing on misinformation through the group are common NIMBY behavioural failures. And council haters? Yes, they exist and their default setting is that council is always at fault.

We need to ascertain whether NIMBYs have an authentic grievance or whether they are reacting in an illogical and unreasonable way. When they attend a public meeting and act irresponsibly or disruptively, we should report that too because it indicates the type of people they are and, accordingly, whether the public should place much credibility on what they say.

The use and misuse of community

Groups opposing developments or council initiatives they do not like frequently resort to the C-word: ‘community’. The community supports us, they might say, or the community wants this to happen/not to happen.

NIMBY and other groups often speak as if they represent the entire community. It is an absurd claim to say any group represents all or even majority opinion in a local government area. How would they determine that? Communities, all people living in a given area, are usually divided along economic, social and ideological lines, making it difficult for any single organisation to represent them. When we look into it we might find that all the community a group vehemently opposing something represents is only the community of their members and supporters. Beware of inclusive language when it is not inclusive.

Community is a slippery term also bandied about by politicians, social workers and community groups. It is a work of many definitions and it can include and exclude.

How language excludes

Citizen journalists need to be aware of terms which imply inclusion and exclusion based on place of residence. Opponents might allege someone at a meeting is not ‘local’. They sometimes mean living within a block or two of the place where a development is proposed. There is no officially accepted definition of ‘local’ other than, for councils, the entire local government area. Council serves the entirety of the area, not a microcosm.

Claims of who is and who is not local is a way to include those within the area claimed to be local by opponents so as to build support for their argument. It is a way of excluding all others. In excluding, they attempt to devalue the opinion and needs of others and push them out of the conversation.

Perhaps it sounds like I take too critical, too severe and approach to NIMBYs. Just let me say that I have seen them at their worst.

The civic reporter

In civic reporting, remember that that issues are more complex than they appear or the protagonists make them out to be. There may well be councillor or staff agendas at work — financial or political. These may be deliberately hidden.

How do citizen journalists approach stories in circumstances where there is a division of opinion in communities and with councils? Here, we can step out of the old reporting paradigm in which journalists merely reported an event. We are free to offer solutions to the impasse councils and citizens groups might find themselves in.

We can get comment form all participants in a controversy. Ask them about their interests in the issue, hidden or otherwise. Don’t accuse. Just say that comments or allegations are circulating and need to be cleared up. If they are business people, for example, ask if they stand to gain financially from a development, and how. If they are religious people, ask if their religious beliefs are getting in the way of inclusive, fair and rational decision making and whether their proposal would disadvantage secular people or other religions. Identifying the motivation of protagonists is important. A choice made by a person, group or organisation can disadvantage others.

It’s not all controversy

Not all of your civic affairs reporting will be about controversial and contested topics. Here’s a few other story ideas you might follow-up:

personal profiles of councillors — why they stood for election to council, what motivates them, why they think their political party/independent councillor position can best serve the local government area, their background, their agendas, their attitude to topical issues like landuse, the climate emergency, the role of women in local government, energy, water supply, local government relations with state government and more; you will need a photograph of the councillor to accompany your story
attitude of councillor election candidates to local and wider issues in the lead-up to an election
opening of new facilities or businesses
the availability and quality of social services in the local government area
how state or federal government policy could affect the local government area
what community organisations are doing, and why; that might highlight a social/environmental/economic issue in the local government area that needs attention
demographic change in the area; are wealthier/poorer people moving in or out and how would that affect the area?
local people making some initiative of civic value
the adequacy of public transport in an area
climate change adaptation planning and initiatives by government or other organisations; for example, would civil engineering works like drainage need to be modified in coastal municipalities potentially affected by sea level rise? would council need to plant more shade trees and erect shadecloth over popular pedestrian areas? where would funding for these works come from?
the availability of affordable accommodation
trends in real estate prices and housing availability
new construction works such as new buildings, housing developments, engineering and infrastructure works
landuse, such as changes to public parks, community gardens, contamination of land and how it will be remediated
local history; there may be a local history group with stories of potential public interest; council libraries sometimes house local history collections
a photographic introduction to the architecture of the local government area with details of the styles, periods and materials
the adequacy of local emergency response organisations and how council would react to different emergency situations.

Civic journalists might not have the time to follow-up more than one or two of these topics. It is likely that what they do blog about will be driven by controversial proposals or policies as these are of immediate interest to readers.

Clarification the most valuable service

Perhaps the most valuable thing the citizen journalist reporting civic affairs can do is to clarify what can be complex issues and choices. Even where they engage in advocacy journalism, citizen journalists can provide a fair and broad understanding of the topic. Doing that is a service to readers.

Understanding how local government works and the limitations it works with, and ascertaining the real motivations of proponents and opponents of a development or council initiative are important.

Civic affairs journalism requires insightful questioning and political savvy.