An introduction 

When City Bureau started Chicago Documenters in 2016, we knew the challenge we were tackling wasn’t unique to Chicago. Gaps between government and the public are widening across the country. Trust in government institutions seems to nosedive further every year. But people still want to engage in the process of creating solutions. Chicago Documenters was built on that desire to engage — and the Documenters Network emerged from that initial success. 

The Documenters Network is an example of participatory civic media. Local residents, ranging from high school to retirement age, are trained and paid to cover local public meetings. Documenters collect meeting agendas and minutes, take notes, and provide context for people who aren’t present at the meeting to understand what’s happened–sometimes in real time, over social media. All of that information is hosted on our website, Documenters.org, and made freely available to members of the public. Audiences of journalists, organizers, educators, local government officials and members of the public are all able to utilize Documenters’ reporting.

Beyond their work in the public meetings, Documenters participate in local and national communities of practice. Documenters are left with a greater understanding of the ins and outs of local systems of government, and a community of passionate civic-minded neighbors to build and create with.

Today the Documenters Network is made up of more than 2,000 people across nine partner sites across the USA. Each partner organization trains and pays people to attend and annotate government meetings while building local communities of practice. This work turns the knowledge, relationships, and capacity of local residents into a powerful community information resource. Documenters have collectively covered thousands of public meetings.

We often hear from people who are inspired by this work and who want to set up similar participatory media programs where they live. This guide offers lessons and resources to do that, grounded in what we’ve learned in the Documenters Network. We hope you walk away from this guide feeling like you just hadgreat conversations with network members. 

We want to see participatory civic media programs grow around the country — programs that share power through democratizing the skills and tools of journalism. We see a future in which all people are equipped to access and use public information for the benefit of their communities. With your help, this Participatory Media Guide is one way of making that future real.

A guide to the guide

We wish we could be sitting across the table from you, handing over this guide! You’re joining a growing network of people who are…: 

• Interested in participatory media and considering a project: You've seen participatory media at work. You've been part of a participatory effort. Or maybe you just want to learn more. 

• Building a unique participatory media effort: You are a community and participatory media practitioner. You might not be interested in public meetings, but you see how some Documenters principles and processes could be useful in your context.

• You are developing a do-it-yourself Documenters-style program: You want to train and pay people to cover public meetings that are relevant to communities or topics your organization cares about. You’re not ready to join the Documenters Network per se, but you are seeking tools, templates and resources. 

• You are exploring Documenters Network membership: You believe in equipping people with the tools of journalism, and you want to work closely with City Bureau and other Documenters sites to set up your program. You have questions about the nuts and bolts of what being a Network member is all about. 

Welcome, we hope this guide can serve as an introduction. 

This guide offers ideas and tools to help you set up a Documenters-style participatory media program that trains and pays local residents to cover public meetings in your area.

This guide is centered on actionable templates developed for the Documenters Network—peppered with advice and examples to help you build a participatory media project or program. Each section is built around:

1. Templates that we've developed and used in our day-to-day work

2. Checklists that you can use to track your progress

3. Resources that we've been inspired by and learned from over the years

We wrote the guide we wish we had in hand back in 2016 when we sent the first Documenter to a public meeting in Chicago. Many of these resources will be more useful to people interested in monitoring public meetings and reporting on local government, but we believe many of the lessons will apply to other participatory media approaches. 

We've divided this guide into six sections: