How to increase civic engagement through community-focused journalism
The Green Line and RJI are partnering to create an eight-step guide to help newsrooms.
Hey y’all! Anita here. There are lots of exciting developments happening at The Green Line, which I’m proud to say was profitable in its first year and was just nominated for a journalism award for the first time ever. So it only makes sense for me to pay it forward, and to share our learnings with the broader ecosystem. 👩🏻🏫
The Green Line and the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) are partnering to teach newsrooms how to increase civic engagement through community-focused journalism. Our eight-step guide will chart a course for editorial and organizational choices with actionable steps based on what The Green Line team has learned through their work as a hyperlocal news outlet focused on serving young and other underserved communities.
The guide will walk journalists through The Green Line's original theory-of-change models, its Attention Funnel and Action Journey. Our end goal is to help news publications increase loyalty and engagement among their audience members, as well as motivate them to take action on issues that matter to their communities.
Democracy is facing its most serious crisis in decades, as individual political rights and civil liberties have deteriorated worldwide, including the guarantee of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, the freedom of the press, and rule of law, according to Freedom House. This dovetails with the decline of local news over the past decade.
But recent research has established a strong connection between local news and civic engagement. A 2020 Gallup/Knight Foundation study reported that people who follow local news closely are more likely to vote in local elections and to feel attached to their communities; they’re also less likely to say that “people like me don’t have any say in what the government does.”
That’s why it’s important for us to share these models, which incorporate civic engagement and community-driven solutions into our editorial process. Rather than telling audience members to passively consume the news, these models deliberately encourage people to take action on the issues they learn about through local news.
The Green Line is globally recognized for its four-step Action Journey model, which explores a systemic issue facing Torontonians in a given month. We have a strong track record of success in delivering Action Journeys, having launched eight since April 2022 on various topics ranging from living with COVID to labour rights in the marijuana industry and the Black film ecosystem in Toronto, so we are seasoned when it comes to execution. As a refresher, here’s how our model works:
In week one, the outlet publishes an explainer that breaks down the systemic problem.
In week two, it publishes a longform feature that reports on existing solutions to the problem.
In week three, it hosts an event that convenes community members to chat and brainstorm solutions to the problem.
In week four, it will publish an article that crowdsources community-driven solutions from the event, so people can take action on the problem.
The RJI and The Green Line plan to launch the playbook this spring 2023, but in the meantime, we want to hear from newsrooms interested in learning more about this tool. Please register for upcoming webinars by completing this survey. We are going to continue adding newsrooms and journalists who are interested in joining our civic engagement journalism working group on a rolling basis, so don’t hesitate to reach out at any time.
Now hiring: TGL associate producer for our community show with CityNews Toronto and more
The Green Line is currently hiring an Associate Producer for our community show with CityNews Toronto. Start date is the first week of June, and compensation is $20,000 for a 6-month contract. This role is ideal for a top senior-year journalism school student specializing in broadcast production, or an early-career journalist with extensive broadcast experience.
I’m also interested in long-form pitches from experienced investigative and/or feature reporters based in Toronto that tackle the following systemic issues in the city through a solutions lens: housing affordability and the dance club scene downtown. We offer highly competitive freelance rates.
Finally, I’m always looking for News Innovation Fellows and am particularly interested in applicants with experience with newsletter strategy and creation.
If you’re interested in applying to any of the above roles, please send me your resume, cover letter and links to three clips (news-length broadcast segments with accompanying scripts are preferred for Associate Producer applicants, longform features are preferred for freelance pitches and multimedia news pieces are preferred for Fellow applicants).
Quick and Clean
“In my community” and “Cool stuff I like” will be back…
I’m stoked to announce that The Green Line received its first-ever award nomination from the 2023 Digital Publishing Awards for Best News Coverage (Community Publication)! I also spoke about our unique approach to news in this Breakfast Television segment.
In anticipation of Toronto’s mayoral by-election, The Green Line is also partnering with Green Majority Radio and The Grind to host Tune In, a concert and community event at The Great Hall to celebrate a city we can be proud to call home. Buy your ticket here before they sell out!
Kudos to The Green Line community producer Aloysius Wong for his great long-form feature on CBC’s treatment of its temporary workers in the Review of Journalism. This is the kind of media watchdog reporting we need in Canada.
Interested to learn the ins and outs of freelancing? Register now for the Reynolds Journalism Institute's Independent Journalist Bootcamp, which takes place on May 19 and 20.
How you can support The Other Wave
My professional mission has always been to support the global movement towards more thoughtful, impactful news coverage, and all the ways that manifests. If The Other Wave gets you to think even a little differently about journalism, especially in Canada, then I will have accomplished what I set out to do. And if TOW gets you to take action and support Canadian media outlets — especially ones that strive to be innovative and inclusive — I will have exceeded my expectations.
If my values and goals resonate with you, please consider supporting fiercely independent media analysis that fills in gaps in coverage of the Canadian journalism landscape. How? Feel free to provide feedback, pass along resources, donate money or simply share this newsletter with your friends.