Building a Shared Civic Future: Reimagining Local News and our Democracy
This event was produced through the News Futures Civic Alliances Working Group.
In partnership with Democracy Notes and the Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan, the News Futures Civic Alliances Working Group held a convening for civic practitioners in February 2025 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The event, “Building a Shared Civic Future: Reimagining Local News and our Democracy,” brought together a group of kind, innovative and joyful practitioners who are working to reimagine civic media and other civic spaces (like libraries, online communities and our electoral systems).
The goal was to come away with new collaborators (and friends), a deeper understanding of adjacent civic fields and a sense of possibility for our democracy.
The discussion centered on:
A call for language to describe and connect the umbrella field of practitioners, from local news folks to people working on participatory budgeting, electoral reform, libraries, parks, civics education, community organizing and more.
An acknowledgment that today’s imperfect democracy is a “dominant system” in need of hospicing and reinvention, with care.
An acknowledgement that the local news field infrastructure is actually ahead of other civic fields and a source of inspiration (ie NewsMatch, INN, News Revenue Hub, LION, Press Forward and News Futures).
There is a strong desire to connect across fields; to learn from each other and build friendships too.
Below are key insights, via visual recordings, from the event:
