Finding Common Ground aimed to achieve cross-border collaboration with engagement practitioners in the media by supporting projects that get people to look up from their devices, meet people with different opinions, listen, and engage in meaningful and civil dialogue across silos and polarized positions.
Three projects from Europe and four projects from the U.S. were selected to receive 10,000€ to support their engaged journalism project. The grantees received support for their travel to the International Journalism Festival in Perugia in April. The selection committee reviewed over 50 proposals from which we had to select seven winners. The selection process was obviously difficult, and we are gratified by the number and quality of proposals we received.
Along with The Robert Bosch Foundation, the News Integrity Initiative, and Zeit Online, the Agora Journalism Center launched the open call for ideas to achieve cross-border collaboration with engagement practitioners in the media. Through the collective efforts from the “Finding Common Ground” projects, we produced the Building Engagement: A Report on Supporting the Practice of Relational Journalism.