Community Engagement Creates Journalism That Matters

By now we all know journalism is dramatically changing with the development of technology, which sparks an associated change in media format, specifically in the way the news is delivered and consumed.

While the mention of change may trigger a sense of hesitation, this change can be beneficial. In many ways, the technological changes journalism is facing allow us, as journalists, to reach our target audience faster and easier and to better tell our stories in a way that appeals to the consumer.

Associated Press journalist, Ted Anthony declared, "Technology is driving the change in journalism rather than journalism inspiring the change in technology.” One way in which technology is driving journalism forward by means of delivery and consumption is through storytelling. “Storytelling used to be defined by what medium we were telling the story in, but now we have a new way to tell stories,” states Anthony.

With technology, we can tell stories through a wide variety of formats, especially as online content through blogs, multimedia stories, and social media. According to environmental journalist, Bill McKibben, “following a good Twitter feed can be more valuable and useful than watching the news." Nevertheless, traditional forms of media like broadcast and print still exist to serve an audience who prefers the traditional format.

No matter what changes we experience, the main purpose of journalism remains the same: "Journalism's purpose is to inform, engage, and activate people to be free and self-governing citizens,” states Journalism That Matters, the organization that spear-headed the “Journalism Is Dead –Long Live Journalism” themed conference at the University of Denver this week.

Throughout the conference, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the way journalists inform and engage the audience through storytelling and engagement with the community. Storytelling is the key to informing in an interesting way. As McKibben pointed out though, "journalists have a bias towards novelty, but, at some point significance needs to supplant novelty.”

Similarly Anthony advised journalists to “learn how to interrupt the story line and learn how to deconstruct the constructed narrative.” Anthony also mentioned that “if we want journalism that matters, we need to help people figure out the stories that surround them."

In order to find these stories within the community, we must engage with the community. In journalism, engagement informs the story, we, as journalists, engage through the story, and then engagement with the story follows via audience response. By engaging from beginning to end, engagement leads to unknown potential.

A big component of this potential is the potential to develop a relationship with the community. As tweeted from my session on engagement, “through our engagement, we want to partner with the community and be travelers together on this journey.  #jtmdenver”

Poynter Institute’s Kelly McBride confirms the importance of our relationship with the community by stating, “Community has the ability to self-inform so the community is the end, not the means to our own agendas.” Community is the driving force of news and journalism.