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Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

BEYOND ENGAGEMENT: A HOPEFUL PEEK AT THE FUTURE OF COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM

Written by CHRIS FARAONE Posted May 23, 2019 Filed Under: COLUMNS, Dear Reader, Media Farm

 

Dear Reader,

 

I have come to give you a report from the front lines of reporting in the future. The battlefield is ravaged, with limbs of stubborn old-school hacks blown all about; still, there is light in independent media, for we have come to understand that competition is a lock while cooperation is key.

 

Such soothsaying was possible last week in Philadelphia, where DigBoston co-publisher John Loftus and I joined more than 150 change agents who take pride in pushing buttons and envelopes. Hosted by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University in New Jersey, the gathering showcased the potential of not only journalists working with other journalists and outlets, but also of reporters connecting with nonprofits, activists, and an increasingly participatory public.

 

There’s a lot of hope out there. We heard from Free Press and Authentic City Partners about their teaming with Grace & Glory Yoga in Atlantic City to mine that community for stories. And from Akoto Ofori-Atta, managing editor of the Trace, about how that platform recruited more than 200 student writers to memorialize the killings of young people by guns in this country.

 

Since we drove down in search of tips on how to cover a field of approximately 65 Boston City Council candidates and counting, we especially enjoyed explainers from the Detroit Journalism Cooperative, which brought together grassroots operations and larger public media to cover their last gubernatorial race. Also helpful in that regard was a session held by Chi.Vote, which brilliantly linked nearly a dozen outfits to centralize info on 200-plus hopefuls in Chicago’s last municipal election.

 

Almost everything we saw could be applied to issues and reporting in Boston. In our ongoing efforts to document the prison and parole gauntlet in Mass, we will be looking at the work done by Resolve Philadelphia in its excellent Reentry Project. Of course we already collaborate with the Cambridge-based MuckRock, which presented in Philly and whose new crowdsourcing tool we used to collect info for our recent gun investigation, and we’re thrilled to have finally hooked up with the Granite State News Collaborative, which is doing awesome things right next door in New Hampshire. It’s funny that we had to go to Pennsylvania to make that connection, but now that it’s been made, I’m sure that it will bear some fruit.

 

For icing on the cake, Rachel Glickhouse, who helped manage ProPublica’s tremendous Documenting Hate project, announced that her organization is launching a new tool for crowd-powered collaborations. Which is another win for small fries like us, who could never afford to develop such resources on our own but will enthusiastically take advantage of their open source inventions.

 

Finally, the sprinkles on the icing came from Darryl Holliday, a co-founder of City Bureau in Chicago. Always a force for people-driven progress via grassroots journalism, Holliday gave a keynote titled, “Don’t Just Engage, Equip,” noting:

 

Engagement can lead to a variety of positive outcomes like social media engagement, listener-driven questions, attendance at your events and new relationships between your newsroom and the public, among others.

 

Equipping, however, is about agency. It’s about providing access and opportunities for public participation and production. Equipping is about teaching and interconnected learning. It’s about exchanging skills and resource. It’s a redistribution of power between institutions and individuals.

 

And it scares the hell out of people in power.

 

I couldn’t agree more. If you feel the same way and want to see more of these ideas implemented in Boston, be sure to follow us at binjonline.org, and if possible, please support our efforts at givetobinj.org.

 

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

CHRIS FARAONE

A Queens, NY native who came to New England in 2004 to earn his MA in journalism at Boston University, Chris Faraone is the editor and co-publisher of DigBoston and a co-founder of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He has published several books including 99 Nights with the 99 Percent, and has written liner notes for hip-hop gods including Cypress Hill, Pete Rock, Nas, and various members of the Wu-Tang Clan.

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Filed Under: COLUMNS, Dear Reader, Media Farm Tagged With: Akoto Ofori-Atta, Atlantic City, Authentic City Partners, BINJ, Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, Chi.Vote, City Bureau, Darryl Holliday, Detroit Journalism Cooperative, Documenting Hate, Equip, Free Press, Granite State News Collaborative, MuckRock, New Hampshire, ProPublica, Rachel Glickhouse, the Trace

WHAT’S NEW

Harry Brill. Photo courtesy of Gary Zabel.

RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL

Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi.

NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM

IT'S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT'S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT?

IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT?

ON NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, PROTESTERS CALL FOR EVICTION MORATORIUM

ON NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION, PROTESTERS CALL FOR EVICTION MORATORIUM

WU AND CAMPBELL TO SPEAK AT MAYORAL CANDIDATE WEBINAR

WU AND CAMPBELL TO SPEAK AT MAYORAL CANDIDATE WEBINAR

Hard right wingers casually tour the Capitol during last week's attack. Via C-SPAN.

HOW TO DEFEAT THE HARD RIGHT

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DIG Year End 2020

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Jostling for position and influence are the disadv Jostling for position and influence are the disadvantaged candidates, existing industry participants, and municipalities … https://digboston.com/the-road-to-home-delivery-pt-5-dogs-in-the-fight-identifying-the-players/ #cannabis #politics #analysis #Massachusetts
The candidates will be interviewed about the upcom The candidates will be interviewed about the upcoming race. https://digboston.com/wu-and-campbell-to-speak-at-mayoral-candidate-webinar/ #politics #mayor #campaign #Boston #Massachusetts
Participants took to the streets in the hope of sw Participants took to the streets in the hope of swaying the Biden administration. https://digboston.com/on-national-day-of-action-protesters-call-for-eviction-moratorium/ #housing #justice #protest #national #Boston #Massachusetts
“They refuse to respond to this humanitarian cri “They refuse to respond to this humanitarian crisis where people really need them. We’re just ignoring this problem and it’s getting worse and worse.” https://digboston.com/its-harder-than-ever-to-find-a-bathroom-in-boston-whats-the-city-doing-about-it/ #politics #unhoused #homeless #bathroom #public #health #Boston #Massachusetts
Environmental #justice and #climate change advocat Environmental #justice and #climate change advocates are pushing for its passage. https://digboston.com/baker-urged-to-sign-game-changing-climate-bill/ #environment #globalwarming #legislation #politics #Massachusetts
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HOW TO DEFEAT THE HARD RIGHT: Some thoughts on the HOW TO DEFEAT THE HARD RIGHT: Some thoughts on the Capitol attack and building a more democratic nation. The latest from DigBoston's @jasonpramas. https://digboston.com/how-to-defeat-the-hard-right/ #democracy #politics #Capitol #US #America #attack #Biden #Trump #grassroots #movement #analysis #strategy #MAGA
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DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]