Sneak peek at my guide on increasing civic engagement through community-focused journalism
A step-by-step guide to The Green Line’s Attention and Action Journey created in partnership with the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Hey y’all! Anita here. A couple of months ago, I announced in this newsletter that The Green Line and the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) were partnering to produce a guide that teaches newsrooms how to increase civic engagement through community-focused journalism…and now we’re ready to launch it! 🚀
The eight-step guide walks journalists through The Green Line's original theory-of-change models, its Attention 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. Read on for a breakdown of the guide, below.
At the top of the guide, under the header, is a navigation bar with buttons for each stage of the journey. It starts on the left-hand side with the Attention Journey (i.e. Comedy/Opinion/Behind-the-Scenes to Service Journalism to Original Journalism to Feature: Part 1), and continues on to the Action Journey (i.e. Explainer to Feature: Part 2 to Event to Solutions).
At the top of each section for every stage in both journeys, we’ve included a comprehensive but succinct description/overview of the specific stage.
Then below that, there is an accordion menu with three menu items; from top to bottom, they are: “How we build it,” “Examples and our impacts” and “How you can experiment.”
“How we build it” details exactly that — The Green Line’s process for creating a given stage. Specifically, we share the workflow for creation, including the team members and other stakeholders needed to complete the stage. “Examples and our impacts” includes Green Line examples of the kind of work produced at a given stage, as well as the impact of the work, such as traction (e.g. engagement and reach) and community impact (e.g. reader responses and solutions). Finally, “How you can experiment” features recommendations for how newsrooms can adapt a given stage to best suit their needs and purposes by playing to their own strengths and expertise.
Will Lager, senior editor and project manager of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Innovation Lab, was my steward and cheerleader during this guide-development process. He also created all the beautiful original art, which features curious rabbits trying to problem-solve their way towards getting the ultimate prize: carrots. In other words, they went down the rabbit hole to address a problem by taking action and coming up with a solution. It’s a perfect (and perfectly adorable) metaphor to sum up the Attention and Action Journey.
During previous Community Conversations hosted by RJI, we collected feedback on our initial framework for the guide before it was finalized. In our upcoming July Community Conversation, we’d like prospective users to give feedback on the final versions of both our Attention and Action Journey. Here’s what to expect:
Setting the stage: Why we creating our guide and why it’s important
Presenting the draft Attention and Action Journey guide, section by section
After each section, there will be an opportunity to provide feedback; we’ll be asking the following questions:
How would you improve this section?
How valuable would this resource be for you and/or your newsroom?
What would it take to motivate you and/or your newsroom to use this resource regularly in your work?
Register here by Tuesday, July 25 to attend. Our hope is that the attendees will eventually be part of a working group of community journalism leaders focused on iterating on and evolving this guide, so please reply to this newsletter if you’re interested in joining.
Send me your long-form pitches for The Green Line
The Green Line is 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, queer history and the dance club scene downtown. We offer highly competitive freelance rates. If you’re interested in pitching, please send me your resume, cover letter and links to three clips (must be longform features).
Quick and Clean
“In my community” and “Cool stuff I like” will be back…
Join me and the Reynolds Journalism Institute team for our July community call on Wednesday, July 26 where I’ll be unveiling my guide to The Green Line’s Attention and Action Journey. Register here to attend.
I highly recommend reading Village Media CEO Jeff Elgie’s incisive, sober-minded analysis of the Bill C-18 standoff between the Canadian government and tech giants Meta and Google.
In light of the potential merger between Postmedia and Nordstar Capital, which owns The Toronto Star, please consider supporting independent local media like The Green Line and many others today.
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.
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