Democracy Day: A nationwide collaborative

Beatrice Forman joins U.S. Democracy Day team as new project coordinator

By Joe Amditis

U.S. Democracy Day welcomes new advisory board for 2023 collaboration

By Joe Amditis

We are excited to announce the new advisory board members for the Democracy Day 2023 collaborative journalism project. Each of these members brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, and we can’t wait to incorporate their advice and wisdom into Democracy Day to make it even more impactful and relevant than last year’s efforts.

Here’s how we organized a nationwide pro-democracy reporting collaborative

By Joe Amditis

This post is an attempt to explain what happened and how the U.S. Democracy Day collaborative came together in the hopes that others will take the initiative to form similar collaboratives of their own going forward.

THE PROBLEM

DEMOCRACY IN THE U.S. IS UNDER THREAT
The U.S. Democracy Day collaborative got its start ahead of the midterms in 2022. It launched as an effort to encourage news organizations across the country to report more — and better— information about the crisis facing democracy here.

We coalesced around one common publishing/broadcasting date: Sept. 15, which is the International Day of Democracy. A total of 400 news organizations participated, including the Gannett chain and dozens of nonprofit and independent outlets.

As we look ahead to 2023, we know we are really looking ahead to 2024. And we know we need to help news organizations build muscle and capacity for what’s to come.

Thanks to support from Democracy Fund, the organizing committee for U.S. Democracy Day has some exciting plans for this year to accomplish just that. We’re planning training webinars, in-person events, content sharing and more.

THE GOAL

DRAW ATTENTION TO THE CRISIS AND HOW INDIVIDUALS CAN RESPOND
Democracy Day is an effort to draw attention to this crisis, provide the public with the context and information they need, and bring all types of media together to sound the alarm collectively.

THE PLAN

INCENTIVIZE MEDIA COVERAGE THROUGH A NATIONWIDE COLLABORATIVE
We’d like to provide clear explanations of what’s happening (and what could happen), give practical information on what members of the public can do, and uncover new revelations related to anti-democratic efforts.

We have chosen Sept. 15 as a day when print, radio, TV, and digital media on the national and local level will come together to report on the threat we’re facing. This will include original reporting, aggregations of existing reporting, and op-eds. Through the collaboration, we’ll make some Creative Commons reporting free for all to republish and use across various mediums.

📺 WATCH: WHAT IS U.S. DEMOCRACY DAY?

What is U.S. Democracy Day and how does it work?

Watch (and share) this video to learn about this historic nationwide collaborative reporting project!

Watch on YouTube.

📺 WATCH THE FIRST DEMOCRACY DAY WEBINAR

This 1-hour virtual session, hosted by the Democracy Day organizing committee, provides an overview of the project and covers items on the Democracy Day content menu, including some great examples for nearly every menu item.

We also heard incredible and inspirational opening remarks from our guest speakers Michael Bolden and Jay Rosen.

Read Rosen’s remarks here and read Bolden’s remarks here.

📃 READ THE FULL REMARKS

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

HOW THIS COMPLEMENTS OTHER WORK + HOW IT STARTED
We know that some newsrooms are already thinking about this, and some are even building teams to focus on democracy, like at the Washington Post. Newsrooms like KPCC and the Long Beach Post, meanwhile, are shifting their political coverage to focus on democratic erosion and the voters themselves. We hope this effort will light a fire under newsrooms that haven’t yet thought about this coverage strategically.

We’re organizing this initiative with support from media industry groups, several of which have already signed on to support the effort. This idea is initially being developed by Jennifer Brandel, co-founder and CEO of Hearken and lead strategist on Election SOS and Democracy SOSStefanie Murray, director of the Center for Cooperative MediaBridget Thoreson, member collaborations editor at INN; and me, Rachel Glickhouse, learning and labs director at News Revenue Hub. We’re hopeful that an organizational sponsor and funding to manage the project could help us jumpstart this effort.

We believe this effort will encourage more and better reporting on the anti-democratic threats we face. And we hope our actions will serve our country and help protect the rights we hold dear — before it’s too late.

Click here to learn more about how to participate.

QUESTIONS? NEED MORE INFO? GET IN TOUCH!

💝  Email us for more info about how to financially support Democracy Day.

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is providing infrastructure support for this iteration of Democracy Day, so you can contact us at [email protected].

Still have questions? Contact the Center for Cooperative Media directly by sending an email to [email protected].

WHO IS FUNDING THIS PROJECT?

The Democracy Day project is supported by Democracy Fund and sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.