Promoting deliberative journalism: A dispatch from Colorado

In the fall of 2021, we launched the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project (DJP). We believed we could infuse local journalism with a deliberative mindset and create conditions for collaboration across multiple local entities that serve as mediating organizations and are committed to democracy and community.

Deliberative journalism is primarily focused on elevating the quality of public discussion and engagement, and on helping the community address their shared problems more effectively.

Deliberative Journalism

DJP started as a collaboration between the Center for Public Deliberation (CPD), the Fort Collins Coloradoan (a local Gannett newspaper), and Colorado State University’s (CSU) journalism and media communication and political science departments, with the support of the American Press Institute. Since then, the collaboration has grown to include the local library district, the League of Women Voters, additional media outlets and additional CSU departments.

Deliberative journalism is primarily focused on elevating the quality of public discussion and engagement, and on helping the community address their shared problems more effectively.

Wicked Problems, Not Wicked People

Academic research from argumentation, social psychology, conflict management, deliberative theory and others inform the work of DJP.

We recognize that humans are wired for polarization and outrage, rather than deliberation, and that typical processes of communication and politics tend to bring out the worst in human nature. Our goal is to shift people’s assumption that problems are caused by wicked people—an assumption which our brains assume and are comforted by—into a recognition of the inherent wickedness in problems.

Deliberative journalists function as impartial facilitators and conveners.

Rather than seeing issues as adversarial battles between opposing perspectives, deliberative journalism reframes them as wicked problems that the community is working together to address as collaborators and co-creators. Deliberative journalists function as impartial facilitators and conveners, while local media outlets act as bridging or mediating institutions in the local deliberative system.

We hope to build an online forum focused on local issues that goes beyond collecting individual opinions by helping the community work through tough issues.

Coloradoan Conversations

How exactly does deliberative journalism work in practice? One of the most prominent initiatives we launched so far is the Coloradoan Conversations platform.

Over the years, the Coloradoan has significantly limited their opinion page due to limited readership and the resources required to run it. The DJP supported the relaunch of a revamped opinion page March 2022.

We hope to build an online forum focused on local issues that goes beyond collecting individual opinions by helping the community work through tough issues.

Each week, the Coloradoan asks its readers one or two questions focused on local issues. Questions typically appear on Friday (online) and then on Sunday (printed paper). Readers can respond to the questions after completing a free registration process. The Coloradoan then writes a recap after a couple weeks, summarizing the comments and working to move the conversation forward.

CPD staff and students assist with the analysis of the comments and develop procedures for helping facilitate the discussion, translating the synchronous facilitation skills from CPD events to a more asynchronous online environment.

Other Initiatives

Beyond the Coloradoan Conversations, the DJP has hosted monthly in-person gatherings at the local library, pulling topics from the weekly questions to dig into with various innovative processes. We have held virtual gatherings and webinars, developed discussion guides and held in-person forums to dig into relevant issues such as reimagining local journalism, addressing mis/disinformation and, for our latest deep dive, housing affordability.

We cannot simply assume local news outlets can transform their work and complete labor-intensive deliberative tasks on their own, considering their financial challenges.

Key Learnings

We have learned that the collaborative nature of the DJP—across media outlets, with the university and with community organizations—is critical because we cannot simply assume local news outlets can transform their work and complete labor-intensive deliberative tasks on their own, considering their financial challenges.

Having courses dedicated to the program has provided significant support for the initiatives, as well as long-term institutional capacity.

We also realized that simply improving the journalism product will not be enough; we also have to work to ensure a demand for it in the local community.

In the end, we are working to convince the community to see local journalism as a public good that we must work together to support. We are confident that deliberative journalism represents a particularly democratic innovation to help pursue that goal.

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