This 5-page essay by Regina Kelly, a PhD student at the University of Arizona, was written for the University of AZ’s National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD).  After the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, NICD called for essays to address the challenges of conducting constructive conversations about gun violence in the U.S. As part of their mission, NICD seeks to promote civil discourse on issues of public interest and does not take a policy position on gun violence or gun control but is ... (continue)

The MIT Center for Civic Media creates and deploys technical and social tools that fill the information needs of communities. We are inventors of new technologies that support and foster civic media and political action; we are a hub for the study of these technologies; and we coordinate community-based test beds both in the United States and internationally. Bridging two established programs at MIT—one known for inventing alternate technical futures, the other for identifying the cultural and social potential of media change—the Center for Civic ... (continue)

The Digital Citizen Project of Internews Interactive builds upon the new digital capabilities of television broadcasting and the Internet’s advances in social engagement, to bring an unprecedented degree of citizen participation to news programming for the 2012 election period. The project is premised on the belief that, when offered the chance to appear in media as “informed citizens,” a large number of people will rise to the challenge. (continue)

Journalism as a Democratic Art is an edited collection of 16 essays by Cole Campbell (1954–2007), former newspaper editor, dean at the University of Nevada School of Journalism, and a colleague of the Kettering Foundation. These essays reflect Campbell’s effort to rethink some of the underlying assumptions that he believed kept his craft at a distance from citizens. To Campbell, readers were not just consumers of information but citizens facing common problems. Campbell believed that newsrooms too often sidelined the concerns of citizens by narrowly ... (continue)

In December 2012, Alberta Climate Dialogue released a series of short videos exploring the benefits of deliberative democracy, featuring well known practitioners such as Matt Leighninger (DDC), Janette Hartz-Karp (Curtin University), Edward Andersson (Involve UK) and others. These insightful snapshots of public engagement knowledge and case studies are a valuable resource for communicating deliberative democracy ideas to others. (continue)

This 2011 report by Tina Nabatchi and Cynthia Farrar for the Deliberative Democracy Consortium explores what elected officials know and think about public deliberation, as well as what they need to know to assess the potential value of public deliberation as a governance tool. Data from interviews with twenty-four state legislators and senior staff for federal legislators yielded some provocative results with practical implications for the field of public deliberation. Download the full report here.  Also check out the authors’ Powerpoint presentation (which you are ... (continue)

A new article by NCDD member Pete Peterson was just posted to The American.com. In it, Pete surveys the growing number of newspaper and government websites that are engaging their readers/residents in policy decisions – from water to budgets. View the May 20, 2011 article at www.american.com/archive/2011/may/newspapers-government-2.0.  Here is the beginning… (continue)

This article on participatory budgeting (PB) by Daniel Altschuler and Josh Lerner appeared in the Christian Science Monitor site on April 5, 2011. (continue)

Here are some great tips that Joe Goldman from AmericaSpeaks sent out to people who were considering writing op-eds/letters to the editor as a part of the Democracy Communications Network… Limit the article to 750 words. Shorter is even better. Unfortunately, newspapers have limited space to offer, and editors generally won’t take the time to cut a long article down to size. Make a single point — well. You cannot solve all of the world’s problems in 750 words. Be satisfied with making a single ... (continue)

The “Democracy Communications Network” was a 2007-2009 project centered around an informal group of leaders (listed below) who agreed to periodically write letters to the editor, blog posts, and other media pieces as part of larger, collaborative campaigns that raise awareness of the importance of quality public engagement.  Use the “Democracy Communications Network” tag to see all the great articles that were written in association with this project. Also see the General Tips for Writing Op-Ed Articles. AmericaSpeaks, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, Everyday Democracy, the ... (continue)