The Granite State News Collaborative is partnering with Franklin Pierce University and the Nackey S. Loeb School in a pilot community journalism project to train members of the public how to report on municipal meetings. 

“Training members of the community about government and how to cover local meetings not only increases local news capacity to cover the meetings where the outcomes of debates and decisions impact life in the Granite State, these trainings also increase understanding of these issues for the public,” Executive Director of the Nackey S. School of Communications, Laura Simoes, said.  “This can lead to increased civic engagement. Community Journalism trainings have the added benefit of growing awareness and transparency around the news reporting process, and growing trust in the work of the media.”

Last spring, the Nackey S. Loeb School teamed up with instructor Richard Watts, founder of the Vermont-based Community News Service at the University of Vermont. Watts led the first cohort of Loeb School Community Journalism students, who learned journalism skills, including interviewing, media ethics, and public information requests. 

Director of the Granite State News Collaborative, Melanie Plenda, said one hope for the pilot program is to bring a diversity of lived experience to the process, to newsrooms and local coverage. To that end, one of the first phases of the project, funded by a $3,000 grant from NH Women’s Foundation, aims to get more women involved in their communities by training them to become citizen journalists by covering local governing boards. 

“When local news and information systems are healthy it creates agency for marginalized communities to engage in democracy, protect themselves, and build a sense of local community,” said Director of the Granite State News Collaborative, Melanie Plenda. “This is especially true for women who can often be disproportionately impacted by decisions made at a local level such as affordable housing, education and economic opportunity.”

The team also hopes future cohorts will include multilingual community journalists so that the news they produce can be done in multiple languages.

“Through this partnership, we’re hoping to increase local news capacity–including non-english speakers– to cover the meetings where the outcomes of debates and decisions impact everyday life in the Granite State,” said Plenda, adding that news translated into other languages will increase access to vital information impacting civic engagement among those who may have been left out because of language barriers.

This fall, the Loeb School hosted a second cohort of Community Journalism students, taught by Mike Cote and Mark Hayward from the Union Leader, with an emphasis on covering local government. Through the partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative and Franklin Pierce University, the Nackey S. Loeb School will continue this program, featuring future trainings, partnerships with local news, professional editing, mentorships and stipends for community journalists. 

The Nackey S. Loeb School has a 21 year history of training the public in First Amendment and Communications topic and Simoes said this is a natural extension of the work being done at Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications. 

“The healthy future of any community depends, at least in part, on arming citizens with better information about the problems they face, as well as potential responses to those problems–community journalism is having those same citizens identifying and reporting on community needs,” Simoes said.

Participants who apply and are accepted, will agree to attend (virtually or in person) at least one

meeting a month for six months and produce at least one reported article for each meeting

covered. Participants will receive a $100 stipend each month, Plenda said. The Collaborative will provide an editor to work one on one with the community journalists and will be the liaison between the journalist and a receiving outlet. Community journalists' work that meets editorial standards will appear in local outlets and will be made available to other partners in the GSNC.

To learn more about the next cohort of Community Journalism classes or contact lsimoes@ loebschool.org or melanie.plenda@collaborativenh.org.

Now through December 31, NewsMatch–a collaborative fundraising movement to support independent, public service journalism like GSNCwill match each match every donation up to $1,000 dollar for dollar. Funds raised go toward supporting programs like this. Anyone interested in contributing to the effort click here.