From Newsroom to Network: Mapping the Community Roles That Fuel Local News

As traditional newsrooms shrink and information increasingly flows through informal, community-based channels, journalists and newsroom leaders need new ways to understand and collaborate with the people already keeping their communities informed.

This workshop will introduce participants to a framework of “Community News Roles” developed by the Journalism + Design Lab, which reframes journalism as a set of actions — such as documenting, sensemaking, facilitating, and navigating — that people fulfill everyday to contribute to the flow of local news.

Participants will leave with a tangible ecosystem map of individuals and organizations playing these roles in their own communities, as well as other practical tools to strengthen trust, resilience, and democratic participation.

Speakers:

Cole Goins is the Managing Director of the Journalism + Design Lab, leading a national initiative to equip more people to participate in their local media systems. As a media consultant and facilitator, he has led strategic planning, trainings and events for a variety of organizations including Cityside, the American Press Institute, Poynter, USA TODAY Network, Free Press, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. He spent a decade in nonprofit investigative journalism, first as the engagement editor at the Center for Public Integrity, and most recently as the director of community engagement at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. He earned a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and currently lives in the Bay Area. 

Megan Lucero is the Network Lead for the Journalism + Design Lab where she facilitates and grows collaborations with community colleges across the country. Megan started her career in newspapers and was the first Data Editor for The Times and Sunday Times (London). She then launched and ran The Bureau Local, an award-winning grassroots and community-led investigative network in the UK. Megan is now based in San Diego, CA, and supports organizations and projects around the world working at the intersection of systems change, community power and journalism, including News Futures, The People's Newsroom and others.