We invited an inspiring group of “Doers” to share their projects and visions for transforming our relationship with the land, our natural resources, and each other. The event offered the opportunity to explore promising community-centric approaches to funding and equitable resource distribution.
Topic: Community Engagement

University of Oregon students test a new framework for dialogue-driven reporting
17 students in DeVigal’s engaged journalism class used the Generative Dialogue Framework (GDF) to host small-group conversations with folks across the U.S., asking them about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and their perspectives on the new vaccine.
University of Oregon promotes survey to understand how people get their news
Where do you go to learn of news? What type of information is most important to you? How informed do you feel about things happening in your community? All of these questions, and more, are on the survey, which is

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.

Meetr is a tool that helps journalists measure the value of community engagement
Meetr — A place where engaged journalism reflection meets measurable progress. Its goal is to support the practice of relational journalism and to provide engagement journalists an apparatus to encourage reflection and highlight growth.

Doers Gatherings amplify community-driven solutions addressing local issues
A Doers Gathering is a half-day event that showcases local doer-led projects, identifies opportunities for support and collaboration, and creates a network of doers in the community. We’ve put together the Doers Gathering Toolkit as a resource to help you get started.

Building Engagement: A Report on Supporting the Practice of Relational Journalism
At a time when journalists are grappling with eroding trust in media and finding new ways to build connections with the communities they serve, we offer a concrete way of talking about and documenting relational engagement.

The 32 Percent Project: How Citizens Define Trust and How Journalists Can Earn It
Researchers and journalists Lisa Heyamoto and Todd Milbourn hosted a series of community workshops in public libraries around the country to get a ground-level understanding of how trust operates in people’s personal lives, and identify strategies for producing more trustworthy journalism.
The Importance of Collaboration Between Newsrooms and Their Communities
What role should communities play in the journalistic process? Strategic Communication masters student Keegan Clements-Housser takes on that question in his new report.
SOJC offers 5 community engagement tips for journalists
According to the tenets of civic engagement, those who live in a community are best qualified to identify its problems and most invested in finding solutions. To start regaining the public’s waning trust in the media and improve the relevance and accuracy of the news, journalists are beginning to ask community members what they should cover and how they should cover it.