PNI Month Notes — September 2021 — Megan
We’re a few months in now — or as Shirish says, The People’s Newsroom “ is out in the wild” — and I am somehow surprised to find that a key challenge/opportunity in building a new future for journalism is in fact, language.
I shouldn’t be surprised really. In the lead up to this project, we’ve thought carefully about the language we are using to evoke this work. Our strap-line, “building community power through journalism: came from the recognition that at the heart of our communities is the desire to build power, not newsrooms. By framing ourselves this way we can first offer up an opportunity for at-the-source change and then show how journalism — when reimagined — can be a tool to get us there.
Over the past month I have been writing (and re-writing) many funding pitches and the act of articulating and iterating has really pushed the boundaries of the language I have for this work. I’ve realised we need: a new “pipeline” in order to kickstart more diverse, community-led journalism entrepreneurship; “shared and accessible infrastructure” so we can catalyse community newsrooms to start-up and thrive; and “new resources to reimagine journalism that is created by, with and for communities.”
It’s such a huge opportunity to be dreaming, designing and pushing for a new future for journalism, but it has shown me how important language is in conjuring that future. I’ve wrestled with this language because I have few points of reference. I am trying to articulate something that is not yet here and yet is deeply needed. Like the many communities we are collaborating with, we recognise the power of narrative, of its ability to mobilise, visualise and bring things into existence and simultaneously silence everything it does not give voice to.
But we are not in fact, alone. I have found solace and inspiration in the community power ‘community’ that exists and is growing — make sure to check out the likes of Power to Change, Civic Square and Participatory City.
And then of course, there is something more important than language. It is how we swallow the words whole and use them to build values that we live by, reorient ourselves and change our approach. Our actions in building a new kind of journalism should match the language we use.
Because ‘news’ and ‘journalism’ are words that are negatively charged for many communities, our first challenge is to communicate in a way that evokes excitement and hope and imagination for a new kind of journalism. We’ve started doing this by showcasing pioneers in our newsletter, holding community coffees with those that inspire us and amplifying work that pushes the notion of journalism. This of course builds on our Change the Story and Decolonising the News work.
The next challenge is to find the next generation of journalists and journalism entrepreneurs. To do this we need to widen our language to capture the work that communities are doing in perhaps a different name than journalism. We’re looking for the ‘storytellers’, the ‘documenters’, the ‘listeners’, the ‘connectors’, those that are working to ‘preserve their community’s history’, ‘decolonise the narratives on issues they care about’, ‘tell their own stories’ or ‘mobilise around shared experience’.
Our work to widen the language and action of journalism is just at the beginning. A crucial part of The People’s Newsroom Initiative will be to partner with community groups to shape a new kind of journalism and surface new leaders. Do get in touch if you’re interested or have knowledge to share with us! meganlucero@tbij.com
These monthly notes are reflections on what The People’s Newsroom team are learning as we build the project. You can read previous notes, and more from Shazia and Shirish here.
You can read find out more about The People’s Newsroom Initiative here, and if you’d like to be kept up to date with how the project is developing and how you can get involved, then do sign up to our monthly newsletter.
