Ten newsrooms dig into potential solutions for American democracy

The Solutions Journalism Network launches the Advancing Democracy project with 8 reporting projects in 10 newsrooms across the United States.

Ten newsrooms from across the U.S. begin deep reporting projects that consider how to make our democracy better. The Solutions Journalism Network launched the Advancing Democracy Cohort project this October. Each newsroom will consider local problems related to the democratic process, as well as ways those problems are being addressed.

This builds on SJN’s work with 100 newsrooms over the past three years to catalyze and support journalism that explains the machinery of democracy — how it works, and how it can work better. A big focus of that reporting has been efforts to better educate, motivate, and enfranchise voters.

In this latest round, SJN reimagined this initiative as a smaller cohort of newsrooms all led by and serving people from communities that have been historically disenfranchised in this country. While the cohort members will be working on individual democracy-focused projects, the group will gather monthly to encourage, teach, and learn together to better serve their individual audiences. SJN will provide coaching and grant funding of up to $20,000 for project.

Dozens of newsrooms responded to the invitation-only application. The following are the winners:

AZI Media is a multimedia news company that promotes inclusive representation, storytelling and journalism made for and by Asians. AZI is working in collaboration with Self Evident and The Yappie for this project.

Focus: Black Oklahoma is an hour-long current-affairs radio program that covers issues of relevance to Black Oklahomans. It is produced by Tri-City Collective and airs on KOSU.

Houston Defender Network is Houston’s leading Black news information source covering the most ethnically diverse city in the country.

Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance publishes Buffalo’s Fire, an independent digital news outlet that fills the information gap in American Indian communities in the Great Plains.

Latino News Network is an English-language news organization dedicated to Hispanic-Latino/x communities with online news sites covering local and statewide news in Connecticut, New Hampire, Massachusetts, and Illinois.

Prism is an independent, nonprofit news organization led by journalists of color focused on deep reporting of injustice from the lens of those most affected.

Scalawag is a community-centered newsroom that works in collaboration with oppressed communities based in the U.S. South.

Self Evident: Asian America’s stories is a sound-rich podcast that tells nuanced stories of Asian America. Self Evident is working in collaboration with AZI Media and The Yappie for this project.

The Real News Network is a nonprofit video and audio journalism network focused on nuanced and equitable coverage of Baltimore.

The Yappie is an online publication and newsletter that covers policy and activism affecting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. The Yappie is working in collaboration with AZI Media and Self Evident for this project.