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The first of its kind and designed with the Center for Public Deliberation, the goal of the Deliberative Journalism Project is to find a way to implement deliberation into the journalism industry. It is no secret that we are living in highly polarized times, with divisions cutting through communities like a knife. But why has the sense of separation become so ingrained in our society? And has the journalism industry proliferated these polarizations and mistrust? Through our discussions and work in the course, we in the Deliberative Journalism Project, have been trying to find ways to bridge gaps in communities through journalism. This resulted in big picture discussions revolving around the following questions:

1. How does journalism factor into the polarization of communities?

Much of the news that people consume is created by national outlets. Meaning instead of reading about local issues that directly affect them, their family, and their neighborhood, people are reading about issues on a national level. This is due to the slow decline of print media that has resulted in local media being owned by national corporations in order to keep the doors open, or the erasure of local journalism completely. Corporate ownership of local journalism outlets removes the essence of journalism, storytelling, and replaces it with focuses on profits. This results in the publication of stories that will make money, instead of stories that may benefit communities. The disconnect created within local communities due to the emphasis on national news over local results from the focus on issues that divide communities instead of uniting them.

2. How can deliberative journalism combat this issue?

Deliberation is all about communicating with members in your community about issues in an effort to help solve those problems. This involves talking to people with mind-sets and backgrounds different than your own in an effort to understand one another to find a happy middle, not necessarily to change the other person’s perspective. To me, deliberation is all about bringing humanity back into the conversation. It’s about agreeing to disagree while also understanding and respecting the other persons point of view. It’s about understanding that while we have differing opinions, we are each at our core still people. Therefore, deliberative journalism is the use of storytelling to convey the middle ground; it’s taking input from a variety of opinions and communicating them without bias. Deliberative journalism ensures that multiple voices and opinions are heard in a community. It allows for the masses to be heard instead of just the loudest voice. Deliberative journalism places the focus on storytelling instead of opinion-setting and ensures stories that need to be told are shared, instead of just the ones that will bring in the big bucks.

3. Where do we go from here?

Throughout this semester in the Deliberative Journalism Project, I kept coming back to this question. The journalism industry has been around for a very long time and is ingrained into our society. For this reason, I kept wondering how any change could be possible. The nihilist in me wants to scrap it all and start fresh, but the realist in me understands that that isn’t possible. But just because we can’t start over, does that mean we can’t restructure and change? I am a firm believer that doing things the same way just because it’s how it has always been done is not always the answer, and I don’t think the journalism industry is an exception to that. The industry as we once knew it is already dying—print publications all over the country have transitioned into digital only spaces or shut down completely—so we can see that some kind of change needs to be made. I think that the following changes may help in starting to reshape the industry:

1. Integrate deliberative practices into writing stories in order to return to a core value of the journalism industry: storytelling. Deliberative practices like ensuring you hear a variety of voices within a community can ensure you aren’t hearing only one side to the story. Reframing the focus back on storytelling instead of selling issues ensures that we are communicating information that people actually need to or want to learn about.
2. Combat misinformation and mistrust in the media by teaching media literacy. Media literacy is crucial in our current age of technological reliance. Ensuring that people are able to understand what they consume and differentiate between fact and opinion online may help bridge gaps between groups and people in communities.
3. Start small within your communities. Deliberative journalism isn’t going to overthrow the hegemonic journalism industry overnight. As such, starting with your local communities is a good way to get the conversation started. Practicing deliberative skills within your immediate communities can help in bridging gaps and uniting members of the community.

While changes in the industry won’t be easy or happen immediately, they are necessary. Integrating deliberation into the way we operate as journalists is a step we can take in creating the change we want to see. Refocusing our priorities back to the basics of storytelling and listening to those in our community is a crucial first step. The question that remains is, will you take it?