Plugging the gaps won't save news. It's time to redesign
"Journalists, cultural workers, content creators, and other trusted messengers are enabling better civic insight for communities. How do we economically support the civic information future that society needs?"
This feels like a vital exploration to me:
“What does it take to fund civic information? We often focus on “more money,” but we limit the field’s potential by ignoring better capital design. Today’s landscape often sees dollars concentrated in intermediary and national plays—often with good reason—but without deliberate examination, we risk stifling the imagination of a developing field.”
This is part manifesto, but also part call to action and invitation to participate. Funding for news has often been reactive, filling gaps, but what does it mean to intentionally design a genuine ecosystem with dynamics that support production of, and access to, the civic information we need that is a prerequisite for democracy to function?
I love how genuinely participative this is: rather than a bunch of people trying to be smart inside institutions, this requires that the people who struggle the most to find information are active co-designers. That feels non-negotiable to me. There’s been a pushback against inclusion and equity in news and everywhere recently, but there’s no other way to build an ecosystem that genuinely serves everybody. We’ve all got to own it. We’ve all got to take part. Everyone needs to be represented.
I have high hopes for this, and I love that the effort exists. It’s something we should all support.
