Oregon Capital Chronicle, Rural Development Initiatives and the Agora Journalism Center are leading regional virtual sessions to hear from Oregonians
News & Events

More journalism startups are building their businesses around a community-first approach
Award-winning journalist, educator and former SOJC senior instructor, Lisa Heyamoto shares her insights on the intersection of media startups and community-centered journalism. As the director of Teaching & Learning at Local Independent Online News Publishers, she’s seeing that “the path to a successful news business isn’t simply about doing great journalism — it’s about meeting communities where they are, understanding their information and civic needs and providing clear utility and value.” In September, Lisa served as the guest curator on Gather, the platform led by the Agora Journalism Center to support community-minded journalists.
The Agora Journalism Center Launches New Website Announcing Our Renewed Vision
After an 18-month strategic visioning process that included many interviews, conversations and reflections with dozens of colleagues, collaborators, and fellow travelers, a renewed vision for the Agora Journalism Center emerged: to be the forum for the future of local news and civic health in Oregon and beyond. Along with this vision, we launched a new website that better tells the story of the insights and connections Agora has collaboratively produced, along with our many projects and reports.

OJA/Gather Award in Engaged Journalism 2021 Finalists Announced
Congratulations to the five finalists of the Gather Award in Engaged Journalism. We’re thrilled to see the diversity of engagement projects highlighted from El Tímpano, The Marshall Project, The New York Times, Arizona Daily Star/ProPublica and Anchorage Daily News/ProPublica. Check out all of the finalists for the 2021 Online Journalism Awards! Winners will be announced on October 15. The Agora Journalism Center is proud to be the sponsor of the OJA/Gather Award in Engaged Journalism.

Recommendations for moving toward an antiracist journalism education
Agora director Andrew DeVigal collaborated with the Engaged Journalism Exchange to host a Gather Lightning Chat and contributed with other academic scholars to produce this list of recommendations to shift journalism education closer to antiracism.

Peek behind the scenes of 14 community-centered journalism projects, including what worked and lessons learned
Agora’s initiative Gather launches a new batch of case studies. Every case study is a deeper dive into what worked and lessons learned from community-centered journalism projects. This batch shares how organizations built relationships, offered actionable news, investigated issues, or created conversation spaces

The Finalists and Winners of the 2020 OJA Gather Award for Engaged Journalism
The Agora Journalism Center and Gather are, once again, honored to sponsor this year’s Gather Award in Engaged Journalism with the winners of two categories, each receiving $2,500 prize money. Similar to last year, we are recognizing projects for overall excellence.
5 ways SOJC faculty research has changed journalism
Faculty members in the school’s Agora Journalism Center have conducted innovative research projects on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to coverage of mass shootings. Their research has led UO faculty members and students, as well as professionals in the field, to better understand how journalists can best serve a changing world.

The Ethics of Engaged Journalism
Agora’s inaugural director Mike Fancher argues that engaged journalism involves the public as true partners, enabling journalism to become complete, more accurate, more trusted, and more meaningful.
Doing more with less: Seven practical tips for local newsrooms to strrrrretch their resources
Content doesn’t need to be perfect to be valuable; share resources within a city, not just a company; and other ideas.