The Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University runs the Democracy and Journalism Project (DJP) to help communities have better conversations about local issues. Every month, they host events at the library to discuss issues like housing and how to reduce political division. They also created guides to help communities talk about local journalism and fight misinformation.
The Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University runs the Democracy and Journalism Project (DJP) to help communities have better conversations about local issues. They work with the Coloradoan newspaper to collect opinions on local topics each week. Every month, they host events at the library to discuss issues like housing and how to reduce political division. They also created guides to help communities talk about local journalism and fight misinformation. The project includes college classes where students create a website with local news and reporting. They've held webinars teaching people how to solve tough community problems and address false information. Their goal is to strengthen local news and help people have more respectful discussions about important issues. All their materials and events are designed to help communities work together better, whether it's understanding different viewpoints or improving how local news works.
{"full_text":"DJP Events and Resources - Center for Public Deliberation \n\n Summary of current initiatives \n\n Coloradoan Conversations - The Coloradoan brought back their opinion page in the spring of 2022, with some assistance from DJP partners. Each week, they ask a question or two about local issues, and gather responses on their platform. To read the comments and offer your own, you do need to register (which is free and does not require a subscription).
\n\n The SCOOP - On the third Wednesday of each month, the DJP hosts an event related to the project. The event is held from 6 to 7:30pm at the Old Town branch. Fall 2022 topics included FC housing issues and local journalism (in November, we dug into results from the Colorado Media Project’s Survey of state and local media use.
The next event, on Feb. 15, will focus on tools for de-polarization. RSVP with the library.
\n\n Reimaging Local Jourrnalism discussions - In the spring of 2022, CPD Director Martin Carcasson developed a discussion guide for use by communities, and the CPD hosted online forums in April, May, and August using the document. Additional forums will likely be held in late spring, depending on interest. The document includes a link to provide feedback and questions about the framework.
\n\n Responding to Mis-Information project. In the spring, the DJP hosted a webinar on addressing misinformation , and in the summer, participated in a project with the the Colorado News Collaborative ( CoLab ) and the DMNS’s Institute for Science and Policy, The CPD developed a viewpoints document to spark discussions on the issue, and then a broader National Issues Forum style discussion guide that lays out four approaches local communities could explore to address misinformation.
An event was held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in June 2022, i to refine the documents. Additional discussions may be scheduled with interest here in northern Colorado. The links to the documents above also provide opportunities for feedback and questions about the documents.
\n\n Dedicated journalism and Honors classes and the NoCo Conversations Hub website - The website will be publicly released at the February 9 event, and will continue to be developed as a local community resource. Supported primarily by CSU Journalism instructor Jenny Fischer and students in her JTC 420 class or independent studies, the Hub will include original local reporting on local issues as well as highlighting reporting on key issues tied to the project.
\n\n Past Events \n\n The “Building Civic Capacity” Series. \n\nOne of the key tasks announced in the fall was to find ways to build civic capacity to strengthen our local information ecosystem. Several opportunities are developing to support this task in the spring.
\n\nOne of the key themes from the DJP meetings in the fall involved concerns about misinformation and trust , both in the sense of how to react to growing misinformation, as well as how claims of misinformation can be used to simply dismiss points of view. Our second webinar was held on Thursday, May 12. It featured Dominic Stecula, Political Scientist at CSU, David Wolfgang from the Journalism and Media Communication Department, Katie Knobloch from the CPD and the Communication Studies Department, Rebecca Powell from the Coloradoan , and Annaclaire Crumpton from the Poudre River Library District.
\n\nDuring the fall meetings, we discussed that the DJP will often focus on doing deeper dives on particular issues, to really develop an understanding of the issue and provide the community with opportunities to engage. The first issue we are doing that with is journalism itself, building off our fall meetings. During the week of March 21st, the DJP and the CPD hosted several online small group discussions reacting to a National Issues Forum style discussion guide being developed by the CPD.
The guide focuses on reimagining local journalism and talking through a broad range of potential ideas. We will likely schedule additional opportunities at a later time, but anyone can read the guide here , and click the link on the bottom of the first page of the guide to provide input on the guide.
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