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In Wisconsin, Common Ground for Citizen Journalists

Madison Commons, Madison, Wisconsin

The Idea:

After studying the successes and failures of the civic journalism movement in the 1990s, UW-Madison journalism professor Lewis A. Friedland wanted to create a community-led news model that would encourage civic engagement and raise public awareness, without having to rely on the budgets or whims of the mainstream media.

“One thing it would take would be some sort of organization that would be larger than the sum of its media partners, where citizens had some very formal convening role, certainly, but also sustaining role and essentially a very large say over whether a project continued or not,” Friedland said.

The result was Madison Commons, an online news site that trains citizen journalists to report on their own neighborhoods.

The Training:

The six-week training course includes three classroom sessions, with the citizen recruits developing stories during the weeks that there is no formal class session.

Workshops focused on how to interview, research and take notes for stories, how to structure different types of news stories, ethical issues in reporting, and the importance of fairness and balance. In fall 2006, the course also included a session about writing blogs.

“That structure helped people learn better, and more quickly,” Friedland said. “I think that’s one thing I would strongly recommend to anyone trying to do this is that having a curriculum really does matter.”

Teaching lessons and class guidelines can be viewed here.

The Recruits:

Working with neighborhood planning councils, the program has advertised for participants through community newsletters, neighborhood listservs and word-of-mouth. The citizen recruits have included state workers, a cook, a librarian, and community activists.

The program has trained about 60 people, with five to 10 individuals continuing to contribute on a regular basis, according to program coordinator Cathy DeShano. Friedland said that even participants who were enthusiastic about the program found that they did not have the time to devote to developing fully reported community news stories.

“Citizen journalists found out that it wasn’t just writing,” Friedland said. “Even the ones that kind of knew that learned first hand that the writing is the end result of a lot of hard work. It’s not something fun that you sit down and just do because you have an idea. The work that went in was fairly demanding.”

The Results:

Finished articles are posted at MadisonCommons.org, which also highlights community news from other local media sources. DeShano said local media outlets, in turn, have published some of the work of the citizen journalists. Madison Commons stories have also appeared in The Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, and Isthmus’ Daily Page.

Examples of stories produced by Madison Commons reporters:

• Madison’s Northside Stays Safe during Annual Deer Herd Reduction
• East Johnson Street Business District Keeps Eyes on Survival
• Madison Women Start a Chapter for At-home Moms of Color
• East High Anti-Smoking Policy Strains Relations with Neighbors
• Public, Scientists Discuss Technology at Nano Cafés

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