The People’s Newsroom is centred around the belief that collective storytelling can be at the heart of the transformational changes our society needs. We know that stories enable us to see new ways of relating and being in the world, with one another, with past and future generations and with nature.
We also know that our existing media systems often make problems worse, rather than helping solve them. The business model of commercial – rather than public – gain isn’t working. Newsroom closures, journalist job losses and industry consolidation measures have hit the sector hard and our communities harder. Journalism also continues to lack diversity, and that’s played a significant role in amplifying discrimination, inequality and harm. Together, these foster conditions in which information is partial and incomplete, which in turn leads to poor decisions and outcomes at a societal level.
There is a different way though, and one that we can all be part of. We know it is possible to have a thriving, diverse, locally-and-community-owned-and-led information ecosystem. We believe it is possible to generate values-driven, therapeutic, possibility-oriented and power-building stories. We know that together, we can build a movement that transitions us to an information ecosystem that serves us collectively at local, national and planetary levels.
The People’s Newsroom started as a project of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as an initiative aimed at unleashing community power through journalism that truly reflects and serves all of us and sparks positive change. It now lives under the umbrella of Opus Independents, a not-for-profit social enterprise which works to contribute upstream solutions to complex system problems.
At the heart of our mission is the centreing of, and leadership from, those who have been harmed by systems of oppression, including by the media itself. We are taking our experiences, stories and knowledge and using them for connection, healing and power building.
We know that the stories we share with each other can inform what’s possible between us but first they reflect how we currently relate to each other. Generative and life-giving stories come from generative and life-giving practices. Therefore, our attempt to create new and better stories is starting with those who are holding new community practices. Starting with a small group of mission-led community organisations from across the UK, we’re exploring what it might take and what it might mean to create and steward a storytelling commons where the stories we create together can be shared between us and in the world for collective benefit.
To do that, we’ve brought together representatives of AM, Civic Square, Greater Govanhill, MAIA, National Theatre Wales and NowThen Magazine. Here on our AM channel, we’ll be documenting what we’re learning together, and sharing the stories we’re creating and the community we’re building.
We hope you like what you see and hear, starting with the values expressed in the If you’re interested in being part of a community built on care, connection, justice, complexity, joy & play and building power (and really why wouldn’t you be?) you can get in touch at: peoplesnewsroom@weareopus.org