Participatory Civic Media and Democracy: How ‘Documenters’ Make Sense of Their Work

The Documenters Network began in 2018 as a participatory journalism project in Chicago and has since expanded to additional U.S. cities. The Network provides centralized information on local public meetings and trains and pays citizens to document public meetings. Documenters are operating in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Fresno, Minneapolis, and Omaha, among other cities. Using an original survey and structured interviews with a sample of Cleveland Documenters, we explore how Documenters see themselves as actors in urban politics. We explore whether Documenting—for the Documenters—is about building civic engagement, holding accountable local government officials, and/or sharing public information with the community. Given the shifting local journalism scene—with declining city newspapers and the entry of major nonprofit news operations—we expect Documenters’ understandings of the role are evolving.