The Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication is the forum for the future of local news and civic health in Oregon and beyond.
What We’ve Built
Since our founding in 2014, we have worked from a simple belief: the health of journalism and the health of democracy are inseparable. Strengthening one strengthens the other. Our work has focused on helping journalism evolve into a more participatory, collaborative practice—one that improves communities’ civic health and rebuilds public trust.
Over the past decade, Agora has become a national leader in journalism innovation and civic engagement. Through conferences, workshops, research, and Gather, a platform that supports practitioners of engaged journalism, we have helped shift the field toward deeper collaboration with communities. We also partnered with the Online News Association to create the OJA Gather Award in Engaged Journalism, recognizing excellence in community-centered practices.
Our name, “Agora,” reflects this purpose. Like the public squares of ancient cities, we aim to be a modern forum for dialogue, deliberation, and civic participation.
Our Mission and Vision
At the Agora Journalism Center, we believe vibrant and inclusive local information ecosystems are essential to civic health — the ability of communities to work together to solve shared problems. This vision builds on our longstanding commitment to engaged journalism and expands it into a broader focus on community-centered journalism: journalism that centers the voices and experiences of all community members, works in partnership with civic organizations to strengthen community well-being, and supports communities as they rebuild and sustain their own local information networks. In a time of polarization, misinformation, and declining trust, these practices create a new infrastructure for shared understanding, collaboration, and civic action.
Agora serves as a bridge-builder across Oregon’s news and storytelling landscape — connecting journalists, civic media makers, community groups, educators, and researchers to support a media ecosystem that reflects the full diversity of our communities and expands meaningful participation in civic life. In that spirit, we launched the Oregon Media Collaborative in 2024.
Our Principles
As a member of News Futures, “a collective of people, ideas, and spaces working toward a participatory and networked future for local news,” the director of the Agora Journalism Center, Andrew DeVigal, endorses and upholds the collective’s charter. These shared principles reflect both our own commitments and the values we believe are essential for building healthier, more inclusive local information ecosystems:
- Collaboration is required. Serving all members of a community requires coordination and collaboration across a broader sector of community stewards. We are forming networks of ‘do-ers’—allies who reject exclusivity and gatekeeping in favor of collective power.
- News must evolve. This work requires the creation of new journalism practices and local news models that are more representative of, responsive to, and accountable to community needs. We support a paradigm shift in how news and public information is produced, distributed, experienced, and funded.
- Everyone has a role to play. As we build this future, we acknowledge the media industry’s history of misrepresentation and exclusion. People who have been excluded from and harmed by the news media must have a reparative role in shaping what the future of local news looks like.
- Storytelling should unite. News should not be a tool for domination, division, or oppression. We must take responsibility for the power of the narratives we produce and consciously adopt care practices that generate hope, restoration, and healing in our communities.
- A vibrant civic life is our goal. The newsroom as a center of corporate interest is no substitute for news as a center of community engagement. We stand for news and information that supports a more liberatory, joyful, and equipped civic life.
What We Do
Guided by our mission and principles, Agora advances four key areas of work:
1. Strengthen Oregon’s Local Information Ecosystem
We convene and collaborate with news organizations, civic groups, and community partners to understand information needs and co-create pathways for innovation. No single newsroom can do this work alone; we help build the collective capacity needed across the region.
2. Create and Share Knowledge
We produce research, case studies, toolkits, and insights informed by national networks and our local projects. Our goal is to share what works—amplifying lessons that others can build upon.
3. Assess the Health of Information Ecosystems
We conduct rigorous, ongoing assessments of local information ecosystems in communities across Oregon. By identifying strengths and gaps, we help point toward opportunities to strengthen civic health.
4. Educate the Next Generation of Journalists
We support the pipeline of Oregon journalists by offering curriculum and training grounded in community-centered journalism — deep listening, cross-community collaboration, civically relevant storytelling, and ethical engagement. Our teaching brings practice, research, and innovation together
