Document details

Pathways to Engagement: Understanding How Newsrooms are Working with Communities

Democracy Fund (2017), 15 pp.
"In this paper, we have documented a broad spectrum of efforts that help position communities at the center of journalism. Different approaches are outlined, along with useful examples from the field. We don’t seek to prioritize or rank these different models, but rather understand that each meets different newsroom goals and community needs. Together, we refer to the full spectrum of ideas presented here as “Engaged Journalism.” Engagement is an emergent practice in journalism although it has been explored and debated for years in other fields, which have invested greatly in documenting, training, and supporting innovation and best practices. But as newsrooms grapple with these ideas anew, it is to be expected that the language they use will be a bit of a contested terrain. It is in language where we hash out the core ideas that shape how we operate in the world." (Preface)
Engaged journalism: Changing how journalism serves community, 3
A taxonomy of engaged journalism, 4
Challenges: Advocacy, inclusion, and assessment, 10
Lessons for understanding and supporting engaged journalism, 12