🏛️ What is Democracy Day and why is it important?

#DemocracyDay #USDemocracyDay #Collaboration

🌎 WHAT IS DEMOCRACY DAY?
Democracy Day is an effort announced in 2022 to draw attention to the crisis facing American democracy, provide the public with the context and information they need, and bring all types of media together to sound the alarm collectively. We want to incentivize media coverage through a nationwide journalism collaborative, one day where print, radio, TV, and digital media on the national and local level can come together to report on the threats to democracy that we’re facing.

🔍 WHAT MAKES DEMOCRACY DAY DIFFERENT?
Service journalism — often associated with civic, engaged, and community journalism — in the context of democracy is fundamentally about helping people understand the roles of their county and election commissioners, how the decisions and policies that lawmakers enact will impact them and their neighbors. It’s about reporting on the stakes — not the odds — of an election or policy for the larger community.

Pro-democracy journalism also doesn’t mean taking a partisan side or ignoring inconvenient realities. It simply means moving away from stories that highlight the political competition and gamesmanship, and instead covering the gravity and impact of what’s at stake when it comes to a particular issue or topic. And “transparency in the reporting process is key to countering accusations of bias," said Beatrice Forman, U.S. Democracy Day coordinator.

Jasial Noor, democracy cohort manager at Solutions Journalism Network, agreed: “Being pro-democracy doesn’t mean being pro-Democratic Party,” he explained. “Both parties should be held to the same standards. Journalists should evaluate decisions, actions, and impacts of policies regardless of the administration in power. It’s crucial to focus on the impacts of policies on people’s lives, not just the political drama.”

———
Sign up to become a reporting partner: https://collaborativejournalism.org/d...
Learn more about U.S. Democracy Day: https://usdemocracyday.org/
Follow Democracy Day on Twitter:   / usdemocracyday  

———
Learn more about the Center for Cooperative Media: https://centerforcooperativemedia.org/