The YouMake.news network: community journalism which defines the agenda

The YouMake.news network
The locally-
owned news
network with
national
impact

Own your voice
– be the local
network with
national impact
Define the
agenda – get
your message
upfront, and in
the news and
physical spaces
you choose
Make your
news – don't
let them make
it up for you

Own your voice
You can make the
news by owning the
means of news-
making – instead of
standing by and
allowing them to
make it up for you

Own your
voice – be the
local network
with national
impact
Mutual
ownership =
people-
powered
journalism
People-
powered
journalism =
people
telling truth
to power
Telling truth
to power =
change you
need, not
change they
want

Be part of a local
media community
with powerful reach:

1) Own and
influence
editorial policy

2) Create impactful
local stories which
grab national
headlines

3) Support and
promote solutions-
based journalism
and story-telling

4) Learn and put
into practice the
skills of modern
citizen journalism

Example of mutual media
ownership, in the city of Bristol:
https://thebristolcable.org/about/

How it could work for Chester:
http://chester.one/home/the-
bristol-cable-a-new-business-
model-for-doing-media/

Define the agenda –
get your message
upfront, and in the
news and physical
spaces you choose
1) Be the best of
local, developing
your community's
economy, identity
and voice

get your message
upfront, and in the
news and physical
spaces you choose
2) Develop a better
understanding of
what you are, and
where you need to
go

get your message
upfront, and in the
news and physical
spaces you choose
3) Encourage the
world to see you as
you see yourself –
the real challenges,
needs and futures
you want to be

Here’s how it might
happen …

Stage 1 = story
discovery in a
secure
environment +
usage of
sousveillance
& wearable
tech
Stage 2 =
construction
where narrators
& cultural actors
work together to
design the
installation /
launch event
Stage 3 =
launch event in
a physical
significant town
space, with
associated
digital tools
Stage 4 =
follow-up
actions some
months on
including
interviews,
analysis, etc.

The narrative process
would arc over three
months, plus a follow-up
element at a later date

It would involve journalists, both
professional and citizen; cultural/artistic
actors with enabling and co-creative
approaches; and most importantly, the
people at the centre of the stories &
issues being uncovered.

Example Month 1: story
discovery
In a secure environment, using sousveillance tools such as
Google Glass, group interviews would take place with
streaming point-of-view footage being obtained from each
participant – whether story narrator, interviewer / journalist
or counsellor (the latter would be additionally needed in
particularly sensitive cases).

discovery
The interviewees – we would prefer to call them
the “experts”, as they, not the “interviewers”,
would drive the process – would reveal their
experiences of a subject previously identified by
the core editorial team as an example of
resonating news for the community in question.

discovery
The streaming footage would be gathered in a
secure, closed environment and would not see the
light of day without the permission and ultimately
informed (ie upskilled) editorial control of the
participants. Other upskilling needs, where
requested, would be offered for all participants, in
relevant digital and other communications skills.

discovery
Out of the experts’ narratives / “witness”
statements, further investigation by core members
of the editorial team would take place where
necessary, so supplementing citizen actions with
more traditional journalistic activities. This would
include data and graphical journalism, as well as
interviews in more straightforward
communications contexts with public figures.

Example Month 2: construction
Once the footage, data and other content was collected, cultural
actors of diverse disciplines, familiar with co-creative processes,
would enable and facilitate a participative and creative
environment where the “experts” (ie the interviewees from
Month 1) would work to develop and implement a relevant
installation to be built, on the basis of the information collated.
Sharing of skills would be a foundation & keyword for the
construction month.

Example Month 2:
construction
Throughout Month 2, selected footage, documentary
evidence and pre-launch communications activities &
content would be taking place alongside the creative
process itself. This content would come from Month 1,
and Month 2 as the latter progressed. One of the goals
would be to familiarise the broader public with journalistic
and co-creative processes, in particular where relevant to
the community in question.

Example Month 2:
construction
Existing institutions such as colleges, universities and
schools would be strongly encouraged to both witness and
participate in the process.

Example Month 3: launch
event
The launch event, and the implementation of the
installation itself, would interrupt – in a very public
way – a central town space of considerable footfall.

event
The installation / launch event would be proactively
designed to cause the greatest impact possible, so
that engagement of the public witnessing the event
would be maximised via social networks, a dedicated
web infrastructure, a 3D / virtual reality point-of-view
tool accessible online and in the physical space, etc.

event
The launch event and its impact would be maximised
via a coordinated echo through other hyperlocal sites
which formed part of the YouMake.news network.
Participation and reporting by mainstream media
would be welcomed, once Month 3 went live.

Example Month 3: launch event
The overarching ambitions would be threefold:
1. make it impossible for any citizen in a community who
witnessed the installation to ignore the issue being focussed on
2. make it clear who were the parties involved on either /
multiple sides
3. encourage solutions-based approaches from either / multiple
sides to the issue, in a facilitative and enabling way

Example Follow-up: assessment
and feedback
The main goals of the YouMake.news network would be to
uncover resonating stories which society & democracy needed to
be reported; encourage and actively facilitate solutions-based
approaches for all citizens affected, both privileged and without
privilege, by such issues; and use art as a way of taking – and
going beyond – the headline and impermanent truths of
journalism towards something more profound, universal and –
hopefully – lasting.

Example Follow-up: assessment
and feedback
If a narrative arc in particular was successfully executed, then a
Follow-up would demonstrate this via statistics and other data
journalism, more traditional interviewing techniques, further
sousveillance footage, etc.

Example of art & journalism working
together, from Hungary 2014:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/20
14/jun/15/hunger-king-hungary-artwork-plight-
homeless-jani-leinonen

Example of 3D / virtual reality point-
of-view tool – Google’s Inside Abbey
Road project (music, video, text, 3D
experiences, etc.):
https://insideabbeyroad.withgoogle.c
om/en

The locally-owned news
network with national
impact

“Nothing about us
without us”

Contact details:
Twitter @OleOKcom / @zebrared /
@chestertweet
Email Mil Williams on
miljenko@ole-ok.com /
mil@pobox.com

The YouMake.news network: community journalism which defines the agenda

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