Keeping communities informed and engaged takes more than journalists and civic media makers. In many communities, particularly in times of crisis, community-led groups play a critical role in sharing and helping people make sense of information. With support from the People’s Media Fund, and in collaboration with Free Press, the Center for Community-Engaged Media is organizing a project to help us learn from and with these groups to better understand how we might support and collaborate with them.  

The “Connecting Civic Information Actors” project seeks to understand and amplify the roles non-newsroom groups play in sharing critical information, connecting people to make sense of community issues, and contributing to a liberated, joyful, equipped civic life. We also hope to explore whether there are mutually-beneficial ways for civic media to build non-extractive relationships with these community-led groups and networks. 

As part of this work, we are seeking both civic media ambassadors and community-led groups (aged 18 and older) to collaborate on a research project. 

We are looking for nominations of community-led groups (self-nominations welcome) that are playing a role in sharing civic and community information in ways that generate trust, service, and action. We will select a cohort of these groups to invite to participate in a co-learning project which will include a stipend for the organizer/group and support for a community meal. Groups will be asked to participate in 1) a learning conversation with a civic media ambassador (~1 hour), 2) a workshop with other participating community-led groups and civic media exploring follow-up opportunities (~2 hours), and 3) a research interview (~30 minutes). 

We are also looking for applications to be a civic media ambassador to connect with these groups. This is an opportunity to connect or deepen relationships with a group you are interested in, and is open to anyone who identifies as a journalist or civic media maker (you can work with an established news outlet, be a freelancer, a community media maker, etc.) Ambassadors will also receive a stipend and be asked to participate in 1) a project start online workshop to review learning goals (~1 hour), 2) a learning conversation with a community-led group (~1 hour), 3) a workshop with other participating community-led groups and civic media exploring follow-up opportunities (~2 hours), and 4) a research interview (~30 minutes). 

More information will be shared on the nomination form. 

Our hope is that, through this process, representatives of civic media and community-led groups will have opportunities to build relationships and mutual understanding. We will then share what we learn and explore next steps during a workshop, which we hope will offer insights into how to strengthen the communication health of communities by connecting and supporting both informal networks and civic media.